"I heard a lot of crackling and the flames got bigger... " UPDATED

Our industry uses various elements during the alloying process in our primary and secondary facilities. Each alloying element has its own unique hazards that need to be acknowledged and mitigated. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted numerous incidents about the hazards associated with magnesium in our plants. Here is a recent story.

Fire broke out Friday night, March 18, 2016 at a recycling facility in Coldwater, Michigan in the United States.

It happened at Real Alloy on Filmore Road.

Officials say no one was injured but large sections of the structure are damaged.

Fire crews were on the scene until just before 9 p.m., making sure the fire was fully out.

We're told it started in a crate full of magnesium, and the fire just spread from there.

A Coldwater resident was driving home from work, when she noticed smoke coming from Real Alloy, on North Fillmore Road, and she pulled over to take this video of the blaze.

"Saw a bunch of flames and I saw a bulldozer trying to smother the flames," she said. "I heard a lot of crackling and the flames got bigger the side of the building caught fire."

The local County Sheriff's Department tells us a crate full of magnesium somehow caught fire. They say the tricky thing with magnesium is that you can't douse that type of fire with water.

So fire crews had to let the fire burn itself out.

"I was here before the fire trucks. The ambulance was down at the end, and then the fire trucks came, but the firefighters were just kind of standing there, but I'm aware they couldn't do anything; there wasn't a whole lot they could do," the local sheriff’s department said.

No one was injured in the fire and the cause of it remains under investigation.

Crews cleared the scene by 8:30. The owner of the facility declined to speak with us.

The APSB congratulates Real Alloy Coldwater plant management and e.h.s. department. Why? Because when the fire broke out the workers knew not to place water on the fire. Water reacts with hot magnesium and releases hydrogen. Sadly we have posted incidents where workers, fire department personnel were unaware of the dangers that can occur when water is placed on a magnesium fire.

Here is an interesting article about magnesium fires (click here). It talks about the hazard associated of looking at a magnesium fire.

UPDATE:

"The Coldwater Fire Department says the fire at Real Alloy Recycling on North Fillmore Road was more than likely caused due to product residue or the skimming of product getting into cardboard."

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