"1 1/2 hours and about 72,000 liters of water....."

We never want any worker to experience a hazard. We don’t. But, when an emergency occurs how will your workers react? Will they panic? Only through planning, preparing and drilling for emergencies will our workers be ready when one occurs. Here is a recent story emphasizing the need to train for emergencies:

At 04:00 a.m. on day during the 2^nd week of January 2020, there was a fire in a production hall in Germany due to an unexplained cause. Aluminum chips were burned on an area of approx. 20x20m for further processing in the hall.

By using four extinguishing pipes in parallel, the fire was quickly brought under control. After a total of 1 1/2 hours and about 72,000 liters of water, the fire was finally extinguished. The smoke development was limited to the immediate vicinity of (nearby street) and never posed a danger to the surrounding residents. Likewise, no one was injured by the fire.

The last post-erasure work is currently underway (6:50 a.m.). The mission is expected to end around 7:15 a.m.

The fire brigade was on site with fire trucks 10, 11 & 12, and fire truck 19 ensured fire protection for the urban area on the main guard.

We are thankful that no one was injured in this fire. At 4:00 AM we assume the plant had a low number of workers there versus during daylight shift. Other news media articles this plant appears to be a recycling facility. From our experience we would assume the aluminium chips were dirty. Which would generated quite a lot of smoke. The fire departments used a large amount of water to put the fire out. We wonder if covering the fire with sand or class D fire extinguishing agent would have been better. Because 72,000 liters of water is a lot of water. We wonder where that water would drain? If the chips were contaminated would the runoff water be too? Just a thought. We will reach out to the fire departments and ask the question.

We congratulate the plant workers for contacting the local emergency management departments immediately. All too often workers will try to extinguish the fire themselves, and then when they realize they cannot they contact the local fire department. We recommend that you contact the fire department first and if the plant personnel are trained to use a fire extinguisher, then go for it. Atleast the plant personnel will know that the fire department is on the way.

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