"Everything is blown away..." (2 dead, 2 injured)

The destructive force of molten metal explosions shocks us. Many in our industry follow the industry’s best practices toward safety regarding molten metal procedures. Unfortunately some companies do not. We pray that this incident will be used throughout our industry to reinforce the hazard associated with molten metal explosions. Here it is.

Two people died when an explosive fire broke out at a smelting plant in Scandinavia one morning during the November 12, 2017.

The fire cause is still unclear. The explosions were so powerful that neighbors thought there was earthquake when they woke up by the sounds at 6.20 pm in the morning.

At the plant of the night workers were about to be replaced when an explosion occurred in one of the furnaces.

In total, four men were at work. Two came out quickly and brought to hospital with what is termed non-life-threatening injuries. The other two men of 50 and 30 respectively, had until around 14 o'clock the missing status.

When the danger of explosion was over and emergency services got into the plant, the two workers were quickly found.

Building remains in the road

The Vice President of the Fire Department, was the first from the fire department to come to the place. He quickly realized that the incident was serious. Six homes were evacuated, while the nearby school was closed.

The first thing I saw was that the whole building was in full fire. There were building remains in the road, and I soon realized that it was serious, " says the Vice President of the Fire Department.

The first explosion is described as if a bomb went off inside the plant and it was followed by several minor explosions. The building was quickly overturned.

The meetings were fast on site, but there were more gases stored in the building. Welding gas, acetylene, oxygen - gases that make it dangerous for the crew during the extinguishing work, says the Vice President of the Fire Department to a news media article.

one of the injured workers was flown over 100 kilometers to a trauma hospital

The heaviest day in life

The incident has characterized both the employees of the aluminum factory and the local community around. In a brief statement, the aluminium company writes on its own pages that the entire [company] family is in mourning.

-This is definitely the heaviest day of all life. It's completely crazy. But we just have to look ahead and try to take care of their relatives as well as possible, "says aluminium company chairman to a local television news station.

He says the company has routines for how to drive, but also emphasizes the necessity of finding out what happened.

Unclear cause

The police started working on Friday afternoon to find out. Currently, they can not say anything about the cause.

Now there will be forensic investigations at the site here and it will be blocked. The investigations will take place on the day and most likely also throughout the weekend, said leader to news media.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere prayers for the deceased workers and the workers who were injured.

In our experience two possible reasons of the explosion would either be scrap contamination or moisture entrapment. Due to the destruction of the aluminium plant and offices the best source of information will be found by interviewing the two injured workers. Without their assistance the root cause(s) may never be known. We will update this story as further information is provided.

Lastly, as horrendous this tragedy is. It could have been worse. ""One hour after the explosion, 12 people would have been at work," says chairman of the aluminium company after the accident.

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