"more smoke than fire"

Almost every type of plant has some type of dust collectors. On the rare occasion when an incident involves a dust collector is important that all emergency personnel know beforehand how to handle aluminium dust fires. Here is a recent story.

The Wapakoneta Fire Department was called out to a fire at General Aluminum, Wapakoneta, Ohio in the USA at 3:47 p.m. on November 23, 2015, sending two engines, an aerial ladder and one rescue squad.

According to the Fire Captain there was "more smoke than fire" and the fire was able to be contained using fire extinguishers only. While the firefighters were told a robot had caught on fire, said the Fire Captain, the fire was actually caused by a dust collector sparking some material.

The Fire Captain said after the firefighters extinguished the fire, they helped clean up the debris and then left at about 5 p.m. Another Fire Department had been on standby for about 15 minutes, the Fire Captain said, but the situation was under control.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog is glad that no aluminium company personnel nor emergency management personnel were injured. We have posted incidents in the past involving dust collectors with worse results.

The APSB commends the aluminium company for acknowledging the seriousness of this fire and immediately contacting the local emergency management services.

The Occupational & Safety Health Administration has some useful information here.

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