The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted numerous incidents about
magnesium fires. One common concern in using magnesium ingots is the
variability and quality. We have reported many incidents where magnesium ingots
have cavities filled with moisture in them. Resulting in explosions when
inserted directly into a furnace with molten metal. To prevent this many plants
preheat their magnesium ingots (as well as aluminium ingots, sows, t-bar, etc)
prior to placing into a furnace. Here is a recent incident involving the
preheating of the magnesium ingots:
Officials are still investigating the cause of a magnesium fire
that broke out early one morning at a factory in the USA during the week of
September 9, 2018 . Local firefighters responded to the aluminium manufacturing
company at 4:56 a.m. and found a fire contained to a large furnace used to heat
magnesium billets, local fire chief said in an email. By the time the fire
department arrived, the building had been evacuated and no injuries were
reported.
When the fire started, the furnace was loaded with approximately
3,300 pounds of magnesium, local fire chief said. Firefighters had to use
“special extinguishing agents” to battle the blaze, because neither water nor
any substance containing moisture can extinguish a magnesium fire, local fire
chief said.
The fire remained contained to the furnace, and firefighters
focused on protecting the hydraulic oil reservoir tank, which contained about
1,100 gallons of oil, and which is located next to the furnace, local fire
department chief said.
The fire was out at 8:32 a.m., and units cleared the scene at
9:03 a.m., local fire chief said. He said the cost of the damage is not yet
known.
We are glad no one was injured in this incident. We are glad that
the local fire department knew how to extinguish this fire. We would like to
congratulate the fire department on extinguishing a large fire in such a short
period of time. All too often on our plant visits we tour plants and see that
they do not have enough fire extinguish agents on hand. Why? Do the plants
expect the local fire department to store 2,000 pounds of class D extinguishing
agent? We have no idea. Regardless, we always talk to plant management about
the importance of having enough fire fighting supplies on hand for the local
fire departments to use.
Please comment.
1 comment:
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