"worker was standing in front of a furnace when it exploded...."

No matter the size of a molten metal explosion the result can be catastrophic. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving 50 kilograms of molten metal and incidents involving tens of thousands kilograms of molten metal. We have posted Here is a recent incident.

A furnace at a foundry exploded one morning during the week of January 1, 2017. It happened around 9:00 a.m. At least one man is severely injured. 

The local Fire Department, along with a local ambulance, responded to the call. The local fire captain said he wasn't sure what he'd see when he got there.

"The call just came out as an explosion at the (company) and you don't know what you're going to expect. It paged out as a furnace explosion and unknown injuries at the time," said local fire company.

Two men were injured in the blast. The worker who was standing closest to the furnace suffered severe burns. Firefighters helped an air ambulance fly that worker 386 kilometers to a hospital burn unit.

"Then basically we got a landing zone set up for (the air ambulance) in the parking lot and then just assisted 911," said the local fire department.

The other injured man tried to pull his coworker away from the blast. That's when his arms were burned. Though they assisted other emergency responders, the firefighter's first focus was securing the building.

"For our part as firefighters, we made sure that the foundry was fine and that there (were) no other concerns in the foundry," said local fire captain.

Local fire captain says the situation turned out okay, all things considered.

"That could've been a lot worse, so you know, thank God. Everybody did their jobs and everything turned out well," said local fire captain.

The foundry casts brass, aluminum, and bronze. The plant manager says in his over twenty years at the company, there has never been an incident like this. We contacted OSHA to confirm that, but OSHA has not responded. 

The company's safety officer will try to find out what caused the explosion.

The local sheriff said "One employee was reported to be burned from head to toe. We assume that who was flown to a hospital with a burn unit. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog prays that the injured workers recover fully from their physical injuries.

This news media article did not state what metal (e.g., brass, aluminium or bronze) was in the furnace at the time of the explosion. After further investigating we found another news media article that stated the furnace had molten bronze in it at the time of the explosion and provided further information on the incident. The article continued with:

Company Vice President said pieces of information are still coming together and members from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating. “They’re all in shock,” said company vice president the following morning, after the explosion. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. When it blew, it shook the entire building.” Members of the local Fire Department, local Area Emergency Medical Service, local Ambulance and Emergency Services were called to the scene shortly after 9:30 a.m. An air ambulance also was dispatched and airlifted one person from the scene, according to sources.

Initial reports were that a furnace exploded at the furnace and it was unknown at the time how many people were injured. The company vice president confirmed that an operator of a brass furnace, used to heat the metal to temperatures over 2,300 degrees, was working above the furnace when it exploded. The company vice president said the employee had taken a sample of the brass inside the approximately 55-gallon unit and it came back low in zinc.

“What we do is we use a spectrometer to conduct a metal analysis. At that point and time, the sample said the product was low on zinc,” said company vice president. “The employee was going to add an addition of zinc, about a 20-pound brick.” Company vice president said he believes the employee was following standard procedure when he lifted the hydraulic lid to the furnace, which acts as a hood to remove smoke and access fumes. He slid the lid approximately 6 inches to the side and added the zinc brick when the explosion happened. “They are still not sure what caused the explosion,” said company vice president. “The injured person was wearing protective clothing, and had a helmet and a face mask on at the time. The explosion blew his helmet right off.” Company vice president said the foreman who was standing nearby tackled him to get him away and also was burned in the act.

Regardless, of the metal in the furnace during the explosion. The editors of the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog pray for these injured workers. In fact we pray for all injured workers and hope that no matter the industry that workers do not get injured or killed.

This incident brought many questions regarding the worker’s protective clothing, the zinc brick, and the explosion itself. We will update this story as we can.

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