lucky to be alive.....

 

We firmly believe there is nothing sadder than a firemen dying while working to extinguish a fire at an aluminium plant. These incidents occur primarily because of a lack of knowledge on how to extinguish the various types of combustibles in our industry. No one should dieHere is an incident that all of too often has a sad outcome.

A local fire brigade was called to a waste disposal company in to operate a fire one early morning in August 2020 in Germany.

In the semi-trailer of a truck, fire broke out in remains of aluminum for an unknown cause. The driver recognized the danger, immediately brought the combination out of a loading hall and uncoupled the trailer from the truck. At the same time, an employee triggered the fire alarm system that alerted the fire brigade. In the meantime, other drivers and company employees have initiated extinguishing measures.

After the arrival of the local fire brigade operations department, the load was completely extinguished under breathing protection and a temperature control was carried out with a thermal imaging camera.

The rapid and exemplary intervention of the employees on site and the fire brigade's fire-fighting operations prevented major damage. In addition to the fire brigade, a police patrol was on site to investigate the cause of the fire.

We are thankful no one was injured in this incident. It is unknown what type “aluminium” waste was in the trailer. Looking at past incidents we find oily shavings/grindings, dross, etc. to be combustible. We assume it must have been shavings/grindings because we all know not to place water on a dross fire. In general we would recommend not applying water to a trailer fire. Why? Because numerous incidents have occurred where trailer and/or dumpster fires of aluminium waste have exploded upon being doused with water. The explosions result in the trailer or dumpster become a bomb resulting in shrapnel being propelled. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted numerous incidents where So what to do with trailer or dumpster fires? Either fill them with a noncombustible material (e.g., sand, dirt, clay, etc.). The other alternative is to dump the trailer and/or dumpster. That way any explosion would occur without a container.

We would be remiss if we did not comment (yet again) on the importance of opening a dialogue with your local fire department. The more the local fire department(s) know about an aluminium plant’s hazards the quicker, and safer they can respond. Safer for the fire department personnel and the aluminium workers.

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