"two workers were injured in an explosion...."

Out of all the hazards the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog posts molten metal explosions concern us the most. Why? Because they come in all shapes and sizes. On our travels through the industry we will visit many foundries, casthouses, potrooms, etc. where molten metal is present. Commonly we will be told “we’ve never had a molten metal explosion”, or “it’ll never happen here”. These comments are typically from personnel new to our industry. In response we tell our hosts that every hazard can result in an incident. Regarding molten metal explosions we tell our hosts that because you have not experienced an explosion (and we never want anyone to experience an explosion) does not mean the hazard is not there. A few times over the past decade we have been contacted after a visit and told “please come back we suffered an explosion”. Here is a recent incident involving this hazard.

At about 4:16 pm one afternoon in June 2019, two workers were injured in an explosion at an alloy production plant in South Korea.

One seriously injured worker suffered a first-degree burn and was transferred to a nearby University Hospital. The other was treated at a private hospital and returned home.

Police and firefighting authorities are investigating the exact details of the melting of the aluminum in the furnace and seeing the material exploded.

Another news article 

Two workers were injured at 4:16 pm one day during the month of June 2019 at an unidentified explosion in aluminum alloy factory in South Korea.

In this accident, worker A is injured in a wrist fracture and a first degree burn and is taken to the hospital for treatment. Worker B (31) is also being treated in a hospital with a first degree burn.

The fire department said the explosion did not cause a fire.

Police and fire departments are investigating factory accidents for exact incidents.

We pray that these injured workers recovery fully from their injuries. We posted two news articles providing details on the workers injuries from 1^st degree burns and one broken wrist.

We assume the broken wrist was from a worker falling down and landing incorrectly. The workers both receiving only 1^st degree burns leads us to believe the workers were wearing the proper PPE but they did not have either a snood (a drape over the back of the hard hat) or were not wearing a full face mask. Why? In our experience if the workers were not wearing the proper clothing the clothing would have caught fire and the degree of burn would have been severe.

example of a snood. Photo borrowed from http://www.silverneedle.net/

The advances in fabric and clothing has resulted in saving immeasurable amount of lives. Not even 20 years ago workers would commonly die from small molten metal explosions primarily because their clothes would catch on fire. Now a days small explosions are less likely to result in a death.

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