"It took fifty five firefighters....."

There are variety of byproducts that are generated through the manufacturing processes in our plants. A vast majority of these byproducts are safe. But, there are some that can become hazardous when they are allowed to accumulate. Here is a recent story where an accumulation of a manufacturing byproduct resulted in a fire:

It took fifty five firefighters from the four different fire departments in California in the USA forty minutes to put out a fire one afternoon during the week of November 8, 2015 at an aluminum manufacturing business according to the fire department’s Twitter page.

They were called in at 2 p.m. after a fire was caused by an equipment failure near a forging press machine, according to the local newspaper. Apparently the machine caught fire and the blaze spread very quickly to the roof, where a sprinkler system was activated. Reportedly an oily residue kept igniting the fire on the ceiling according to the local fire department. Damage was estimated to be about $50,000.

The company specializes in closed die aluminum and titanium forgings, machined and finished components and assemblies, and aluminum open die (“hand”) forgings. Their markets include every major aircraft/aerospace manufacturer in the world, automotive O.E.M. and after-markets, recreation, industrial, medical equipment, and others.

No one was injured in the blaze. About fifty employees were able to exit the building safely. A hazmat crew was able to contain the runoff mixture of water and chemicals – which would have posed a threat to the environment had it made it to the storm drains.

The business may remain closed. This incident should be covered by their property insurance policy. Their insurance policy may also provide funding for the business interruption and the repairs needed after the fire.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog is glad that no one was injured in this incident and it appears that the damage to both the facility and production loss was minimal. We chose to omit the company name and location because we were concerned on how our comments would be interpreted. Now with that said. Too many plants in our industry allow for the accumulation of manufacturing byproducts or waste. Which is done because of a lack of knowledge not by malicious intent. The importance of good housekeeping varies from plant to plant. We have viewed buildups of aluminum fines/dust on top of equipment and roof joists in many plants. We have observed the accumulations of aluminum shavings on saws and drill presses. This incident involved the accumulation of oil and/or grease from a foundry press. That same issue has been viewed by the editors of the APSB on many foundry plant tours. It should be noted that in this incident that the fire sprinklers were activated but were effective in only containing the fire. We assume that is because the fire was on the underneath of the roof and above the fire sprinklers.

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