"a fire had broken out in three different sections of a furnace...."

Simple question. Is the hydraulic fluid used in your plant flammable? The answer is yes or no? If you answer “I don’t know” you should find out immediately. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents where companies either did not know or assumed that the potential hazard of flammable hydraulic oil was low. Here is a recent story highlighting the hazard.

 

A fire that broke out an aluminium wheel plant in the USA was quickly and efficiently put out by firefighters and staff one morning during the week of July 19, 2020.

At approximately 10:58 a.m., firefighters from the local fire department were dispatched to the plant for a reported structure fire.

According to local fire department Staff Sergeant, firefighters arrived on the scene to find that a fire had broken out in three different sections of a furnace.

“The machine was on fire in three different places,” local fire department Staff Sergeant said. “It was already being contained by (aluminium company’s) personnel. By the time we got here to put our gear on and do what we needed to do, all that was left was one of the fires that was (located) about 40 feet in the air, near a pipe.”

Local fire department Staff Sergeant said mutual aid from two other fire departments was immediately called in.

“Not knowing what we had, the 911 call was that there was a fire on the north end of the building and people were evacuating,” he said. “There were numerous 911 calls on it, so we knew it was more than just a fire alarm. We got mutual aid rolling immediately, knowing that we’ve had incidents here where we’ve needed additional people. Of course, with the heat and the weather, you always want extra individuals as well.”

According to the local emergency management Director, the fire broke out in a furnace transporting aluminum particles.

“It was exhaust tubing that burns aluminum that caught on fire when they initially added air into that mixture,” he said. “The (two) places were quickly contained by staff and by us, but the third one was located up high, so it was a little difficult.”

Magirl says firefighters used a lift to reach the third fire.

“The insulation burning between the tubing connection was also put out,” he added. “…It (was) contained within the tubing, so it’s not going to spread throughout the factory.”

Once the flames were extinguished with a dry chemical, firefighters then had to wait for the tubing to cool down.

“Officers are working with technicians on the best course of action,” the local emergency management Director said.

The local emergency management Director was unsure as to the extent of damage the fire caused, but noted that the incident was caught relatively early.

“Talking with the people in there, it was very obvious to them. They do this every day, so when they fired up the machine, they knew they had a problem,” he said. “We didn’t do any cutting, no water was added or anything like that.”

According to local fire department Staff Sergeant, the machine that caught fire wasn’t completely destroyed.

“They’re indicating that once everything cools down, they can replace some parts and get it up and running again,” he said.

Nobody was injured. Two local ems departments provided additional assistance.

According to the aluminium company Human Resources Manager, production at the company only had to shut down in the area that the fire was contained to.

“We’re back and running,” aluminium company Human Resources Manager said. “We just had to shut down the one area for a while.”

We are glad no one was injured in this fire. We have spoken about the hidden hazards in our industry. It is these hazards that are many times overlooked. Why? Because many plants have a false safety belief when it comes to these hazards. A false safety belief is a practice or procedure that is believed to be safe because an incident has not occurred. It is only after an incident occurs that the practice or procedure was determined to be always unsafe. In our experience many times hydraulic oil fires fall into this category. Over the past 15 years on our plant tours we have pointed out countless hidden hazards. On some occasions plant managers disregarded our observations. Only a few times incidents have occurred. We then get the inevitable email or telephone call stating that our fears came to reality.

So we ask you again. In your plant is the hydraulic oil flammable? If you do not know, you best find out today.

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article on this exact topic last year. The article can be downloaded here.

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