Fire of a crucible….

Crucibles of all sizes are used to transport metal from the potlines to casthouses countless times a day with no incidents. But the potential exists of an incident. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving crucibles that tipped over, that cracked and were leaking metal, etc. Here is a recent incident emphasizing the potential hazard that exists with a piece of equipment that sometimes gets overlooked in our industry.

A crucible used to transport molten metal caught fire on Monday night, July 30, 2018 at a smelter in Canada. The fire, which caused a thick column of smoke, was controlled by the company's firefighters and the crucible was secured, said the smelter spokesman in Canada. The incident occurred around 7:30 pm the spokeswoman said no one was hurt and there was no impact on production. She mentioned that the company was taking this incident seriously and was going to investigate to determine the circumstances of this incident to prevent such a situation from reoccurring.

We are glad no one was injured in this incident. This incident could have been much much worse. For example these types of incidents in the steel industry where molten metal is leaking from a crucible for more deaths than any other hazard. Luckily for this plant it appears the crucible was on a trailer when the fire occurred. The news media does not state if any molten metal escaped or not. We are confident that this plant will investigate and if determine if any changes need to be made to prevent this from occurring.

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