"we had a bucket brigade operation...”

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving molten metal spills in the past. Those incidents fall into two categories; either the plant was prepared or they were not. Here is a recent story emphasizing the importance of always having in stock enough firefighting material.

A call at the Kaiser Aluminum plant in Spokane Valley (Washington, USA) early one morning last week led to hours of effort by Spokane Valley Fire Department crews to put out a fire caused by molten metal.

Crews were called to the plant in the 15000 block of East Euclid Avenue at 4:50 a.m. on Feb. 16 to find heavy fire under one of the remelt furnaces, said fire department spokeswoman. Firefighters could not use water to put out the fire because it “doesn’t mix well” with will molten aluminum, she said.

Kaiser had 55-gallon drums of metal extinguishing powder on hand, and crews dumped the powder on the fire, one 5-gallon bucket at a time. “We had a bucket brigade operation,” fire department spokeswoman said.

They went through 15 of the 55-gallon drums before bringing the fire under control around 7:30 a.m.

“It was quite an effort,” fire department spokeswoman said.

We have posted incidents where a fire occurred and the aluminium plant relied upon the local fire department to provide the extinguishing agents. Unfortunately, many times local fire departments do not have enough fire extinguishing material to sufficiently fight an aluminium fire. When that occurs the danger to our workers and those fire fighters increases. That is why we congratulate Kaiser Aluminium Trentwood on being prepared when this fire broke out. One could imagine what could have occurred if this plant did not have 825 gallons of fire extinguishing agent on hand. We commend this plant for acknowledging the importance of have enough fire extinguishing agent on hand to fight this fire.

On our plant tours we always count fire extinguishers. Many times our plants do not have enough fire extinguishing agents on hand. While you walk through your plant please count the fire extinguishing agents (e.g., extinguishers, buckets of sand/bone ash, etc.). Then look at the fire hazards that you currently are mitigating. Then contact your local fire department(s) and inquire on what fire extinguishing agents that they have to address your plant’s fire hazards. Then ask this simple question: With both your material and the local fire department’s stock of fire extinguishing agent, is there enough to extinguish a fire at your plant?

Please comment.