"fire at a rolling mill...."

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog’s hope is that by bringing awareness to these incidents we can prevent recurrence. Many of the incidents we post result in no injuries or deaths. Which we are ecstatic about. We never want anyone to get hurt or killed. But we post the incidents where no one got hurt to emphasis that in majority of the time the workers followed their evacuation training. In addition sometimes the news media articles provide some useful information that the reader can take back to their plant. Here is a recent story:

ORIGINAL STORY: 7/13/18, 8 PM

Crews are on scene of a reported fire at a rolling mill in Buckhannon, West Virginia in the USA. According to officials, the call came in for Aleris Rolling Mill on Moore Avenue around 7 p.m., Friday.

No injuries have been reported. At this time, not much else has been made released.

Crews from the Buckhannon, Warren District, Washington District, Adrian, Ellamore, Weston and Elkins fire departments are on scene.

Check back for the latest.

UPDATE: 7/13/18, 9:55 PM

The fire at the Aleris Rolling Mill in Buckhannon is estimated to have caused about $2.25 million in damages. That's according to what workers told firefighters on scene.

Employees told members of the Buckhannon Fire Department rolls of aluminum got jammed and overheated, sparking the fire.

The mill itself is estimated to be worth about $2 million and they believe there's about another $250,000 in property damage.

No one was hurt.

UPDATE: 7/13/18, 11:45 PM

Aleris representatives say it's too early to really know any estimate for damage. Workers on scene had told firefighters they thought it was about $2.25M, but company officials say they are unable to know that just yet.

Crews will be on scene Saturday to assess the extent of the damages and figure out the next steps are in the clean-up process.

Representatives say at that time, they will have a better estimate of just how much damage was caused.

BUCKHANNON, W. Va. (WDTV) --UPDATE: 7/14/18, 5:10 PM
Aleris representatives were able to assess the damages from the fire today and determined it was contained to a small section of the plant.

The fire caused damages to a manufacturing line. That section of the plant will be closed for the time being, while the rest of the facility will resume normal operations on Monday.

They say it is still too early to put a cost figure on the damages.

We are very happy that no one was injured in this incident. We commend the plant for evacuating all of their employees safely.

We chose to include all of the news posts on this story for the reader to view the evolution from the first news report to the last. We congratulate the company for reaching out to the news media and providing answers to their questions. All too often many plants will refuse comment when an incident occurs. Leaving the news media to use sources that may not have the correct information. Worse yet is when the news media has to make assumptions on what occurred inside our factory gates. When that occurs, misinformation results which can lead to problems down the road. When in doubt always reach out to the news media.

Keep up the good work Aleris Buckhannon. We hope that the damage can be quickly repaired and production can be resumed.

Now to end. The important question I would take from this incident if I worked at a rolling mill would be what would happen if a “roll of aluminum got jammed and overheated” at my plant?

Please comment.