"70 emergency services personnel responded to fire....."

Simple question every reader should ask. If a fire breaks out does your department, your plant have enough fire extinguishing agent. Prior to answering. Please note: When we ask this simple question, the response is typically “We have enough fire extinguishers, or extinguish agents as per local, provincial, and federal requirements.” If that is your departments answer. Then you are in trouble. Here is a recent incident:

 

From fire department’s social media posting:

We were alerted on 01.10. vs 20:45 about a stage 4 industrial fire. The fire brigades from (five local departments)  supported us here. In addition, the support group Local Operations Management, Civil Protection Leadership Group and the Information and Communication Technology were on site. As always, the cooperation worked out well. Thanks to the other defense

There was a fire in the extraction system, which could be quickly controlled by the 4 respiratory troops and thus successfully extinguished.

Around 00:30 in the night for Friday we were back at the site and ready to go again.

From news media account.

A fire broke out in a city in Germany one evening during the week of October 1, 2020. Numerous emergency services moved to the affected foundry on the outskirts, the property damage is enormous.

Excitement on the evening in a foundry in (city name omitted): According to information from district fire brigade press spokesman, a ventilation system caught fire (on top of a furnace), around 70 emergency services personnel from (4 nearby communities) were on site. The local emergency management services, alerted around 8:50 p.m., quickly extinguished the flames.

Nobody got hurt. The property damage is given in an initial estimate at around 150,000 euros.

We are ecstatic no one was injured in this incident. Thankfully this foundry had numerous fire departments in the vicinity that could respond. That is not always the case. No doubt this fire was located in a difficult place to reach. Located on top of a furnace 3-4 meters off the ground. In addition due to the presence of molten metal the fire department wisely chose not to spray water on the fire. The photo showing 14 fire extinguishers was very important for us as a learning point from this incident. 

We are confident to say that the fire extinguishers did not come from the aluminium foundry. Why? They appear to be different models, different sizes from different manufacturers. Aluminium plants typically buy all the same size, same model, from the same manufacturer. A few might be from the aluminium plant, but not all and apparently they needed a minimum of 14 fire extinguishers to put this fire out. It is our opinion that fire departments were called to this foundry not because of the size of the fire. It was not a large fire at all from the photos and news media articles. It is our opinion that the four fire departments responded because the original fire department did not have enough fire extinguishers. Nor did the aluminium plant. 

The Aluminium Times had an article about this topic. It can be found here.

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