"it may take more than 90 days for complete extinguishing"

Fighting fires in the aluminium industry is much different than any other industry. That is because our plants has a range of combustible materials that all require a different fire extinguish agent. That is the reason that we recommend that aluminium plants train their local fire departments on the proper methods of fighting fires in their plants. Here is a local story emphasizing the importance of knowing how to extinguish a fire.

The fire at the aluminum factory in South Korea, was extinguished in 22 days.

According to the the local Fire Department on the 3rd, the fire at the aluminum factory in was completely extinguished at 5 pm on the 1^st of September 2020.

The factory fire occurred on the 10th of August, 2020 nd lasted for 22 days, with 200 tons of aluminum and other metal powder burned.

Metal fires cause chemical reactions when they come into contact with water and generate combustible gases, so water cannot extinguish fires, and the risk of explosion is very high. 

In particular, experts predicted that it may take more than 90 days for complete extinguishing due to the quantity of 200 tons of metal powder and generation of high heat of 1,000 degrees or more. 

The local Fire Headquarters applied the fire surface with expanded vermiculite, which is an extinguishing agent, to establish a defense line for expanding combustion and induce suffocation.

In addition, by measuring the temperature of harmful gases and flames every day, inducing natural combustion to be promoted, and by finding the time when the metal content was lowered, the operation was changed to eliminate fire extinguishing, breaking the expected period of 90 days and succeeding in complete extinguishing within 20 days. 

650 tons of unburned aluminum were moved to a safe area. The head of the fire department headquarters, said, "It was an opportunity to strengthen the firefighting officers' ability to respond to metal powder fires through various measurements and experiments." 

We are so very proud of everyone involved in responding to this fire. The aluminium company and the fire department knew not to place water onto the powder fire. Media reports do not list any injuries regarding this incident. Good Job!

One could only imagine the potential catastrophe if the fire department sprayed water on the flames. We sadly have reported many incidents where that has occurred resulting in injuries and deaths.

Please note it took 22 days for this fire to be extinguished !

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