The hazard
associated with aluminium dross fires is well known throughout our industry.
BUT, incidents still occur. Why? Because, our plants fail to educate their
workers and most importantly they fail to educate the local fire departments
who respond to a dross fire. Thankfully, this incident resulted in no injuries
or fatalities because the aluminium company did train all parties involved
before this incident occur. Here is a recent story that illustrates the
importance of preplanning and training.
"The first alarm was at 7.18
clock, the use was completed for us at 10.50 clock," said a local fire
department official. From what was not yet clarified, the aluminum remains in a
container in one of the production halls had caught fire and caused an enormous
amount of smoke in the building in Germany during the week of January 13, 2019.
The fire alarm system was triggered by the smoke.
"When we arrived at the place of
work, the (foundry) employees had already reacted well and pushed the burning
container out of the hall into the open," said the fire department offical.
The defense forces tried to extinguish the fire first with metal fire powder
provided by a nearby nickel and stainless steel melt shop fire brigade. "But
because the actual source of the fire was under all the debris, we could not
completely quench all the embers," said a representative from the fire
brigade
This succeeded in the following hours
only with combined forces. A truckload of sand was brought to extinguish the
fire."The company had already given us great support during a container
fire last year - and now on Tuesday again," said a foundry representative.
Support was also given to employees of a construction company, who was working
on supply lines not far from the foundry site.
"So we were able to quickly
transport the sand into the container with a large excavator. This of course
accelerated the work, "said a foundry spokesman, who thanked both
companies for their spontaneous assistance:" We really worked hand in hand.
"
We are thankful that no one was injured in this incident. We chose
not to mention the company name because we noticed that this company had a
previous fire last year. We are glad that the company had the safety mechanism
in place to address this fire. But, what would have happened if this fire
occurred during the night, weekend, of holiday shutdown. Our concern is that
the dross container was stored inside their building. Not an outbuilding. If
this fire occurred during a time when the nearby companies who provided support
were closed. This fire could have been much much worse.
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