"It shook everything!"

 

We are typically told the same day when a molten metal explosion occurs and makes it into the news media. Why? Typically, the explosion has to be large enough that the local fire department was called. Or a worker(s) were injured or killed. Just this week we were talking about how many fatalities were caused by molten metal incidents. Sadly, it has been over 10 that we are aware of. One death, one injury is too much. But, sadly annually around 10 workers are either killed or succumb to the injuries because of a molten metal explosion. Here is a recent story that shocked a local community.

An explosion at metal plant in (the USA) has left one employee injured.

Emergency dispatch services say the call about the explosion came in around 1:45 p.m.

The explosion happened at (company name removed), located in the (address removed). The facility makes aluminum sheet and plate products using kilns, according to (aluminium company’s) website.

The local Fire Rescue responded to the call. A spokesperson with Fire and Rescue, says the explosion occurred in one of the kilns, but the cause of the explosion in the kiln (aka furnace) is unknown.

One employee was injured and taken to the hospital. His injuries are believed to be minor.

The spokesperson with Fire and Rescue says there was no structural damage, only cosmetic from what officials can see at the moment. No surrounding buildings were affected.

Fire crews remained on the scene for several hours to help aluminium company’s maintenance crew metering the gas lines to get the other kilns (aka furnaces) back up, as well as make sure there were no leaks.

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.

Our prayers were answered, all indications are the injured worker was released from the hospital. We continue to pray that he recovers from his injuries.

We had to laugh at some of the words used to describe damage after an explosion. We never heard of “only cosmetic” when describing the damage.

 

Photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/MAKINTHEHIT/
 

So it appears the back side of the casthouse was blown out. “only cosmetic” damage. A simple method to figure out if the structure of the building was damaged is to check the crane rails. If they are no longer level, or they are uneven, damage is structural. Then further investigation needs to be undertook to determine the extent of damage. This explosion was small to medium in our experience. We have yet to see photos from inside to see what extent of damae there was. Regardless, we are so very happy that no one died or was seriously injured in this explosion. 

Back to the "only cosmetic" phrase. It is a great description because if the walls did not blow out. The force of explosion would have reverberated inside the casthouse. When that occurs workers are typically thrown against machine or a fixed object. Resulting in severe injuries with fatalities. This is the exact reason why greenfield plants are at a disadvantage when an explosion occurs. When we tour new aluminium casthouses we mention the lack of blow out panels in the exterior walls. The owner(s) don’t know what to think when we tell them that. When we explain further on the differences in design on their new facility versus a plant that was built 50-70 years ago the owners finally understand. We have been successful in convincing some owners to install blow out panels. 

Ok back to this explosion. Why did it occur? In the most elementary explanation ; explosions can happen for two reasons: introduction of moisture (e.g., water) or contamination (e.g., foreign substance) in a molten bath. All reports indicate that this explosion occurred by the charging of wet scrap. The area where this plant is located received a snow recently. Any outside storage, or any delivery of scrap material that was not tarped during transportation would have got covered in snow and be deemed “wet”. We have been at this facility several times and we can not recall if they had covered storage for their scrap or not. Regardless, moisture was in or on the scrap when it was charged. Please note that moisture does not necessarily have to be in the liquid phase. The moisture could have been in the form of ice. We have reported on numerous plants that suffered an explosion when they charged scrap containing ice. We have full confidence in the aluminium company, plant management, and workers to determine what happened and to institute engineering and human controls to prevent this from occurring again. Please note, we assume that the reason other workers were not injured were two fold, non essential workers were kept away, and whatever workers who were present were wearing the proper p.p.e. 

After every incident we post we state: We challenge the reader(s) to take the incident (if it is pertinent to their workplace) back to their plant. Ask your supervisors “Can this incident occur here?” If the answer is yes, investigate how it can happen and take measures to prevent it from occurring. 

Lastly we would be remiss if we did not mention that we do not place blame on the aluminium company nor the workers. Why? Because with all due respect to the injured worker. We do not care where this explosion occurred. Nor do we care about the company name. It is our sincere hope that by bringing awareness to these incidents we can prevent recurrence. Hopefully that makes sense.  

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