"molten metal fire ... contained to a concrete stall"

Ignition sources in aluminium plants are numerous. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted numerous incidents where molten metal was the ignition source. Here is a recent incident that could have been worse if the aluminium plant did not know what to do.

The fire at aluminium plant in the Midwest USA now is under control, a company spokesman said.

At least four area fire departments responded to the call around 10 a.m. of a structure fire at the plant.

While no structures were ablaze, it took about two hours to control a flare-up of molten metal. Such fires cannot be extinguished with water, so crews used sand to smother it. The flare-up was described as being primarily smoke, rather than flames.

(Aluminium Company) spokesman described the incident as a "molten metal fire ... contained to a concrete stall."

In addition to the (local) Fire Department, personnel from at least two other fire stations responded.

We are ecstatic that no one was injured in this incident. That was due to the aluminium company and fire departments working together to acknowledge the hazard and the safest way to extinguish the fire. The APSB has posted numerous incidents where dross fires have resulted in injuries and fatalities.

The quote from the aluminium company spokesman “"molten metal fire ... contained to a concrete stall” led us to believe it was a dross fire. Which we were able to confirm that it was indeed a dross fire. The safest way to extinguish dross fires is by smothering it with a class d fire extinguishing agent. Apparently the aluminium company and fire department used sand to extinguish this fire. We would recommend using sand as a last resort only because sand does have the potential to absorb moisture. We would not recommend applying water to a dross fire.

We cannot help but recall the incident years ago where a foundry was dumping their dross into an open empty roll off dumpster. The foundry was closed one weekend and the dross ignited in the dumpster. The local volunteer fire department came and with no education poured water onto the smoldering dross. An explosion resulted killing one fire man and injuring another severely. That fatality could have been prevented if the foundry company educated the local fire department to their hazards. We have said that in our opinion that there is nothing worth than ems personnel dying while dealing with a hazard. EMS personnel die because of a lack of education to our plants' hazards. This can be easily corrected by having periodic plant tours with fire department personnel.

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