" 1 death, 6 were seriously injured, and 14 were slightly injured..."

 

The importance of recycling aluminium in terms of a source for scrap for our secondary aluminium plants is obvious. Many aluminium plants will perform supplier inspections to understand where and how their scrap is being processed. We commend our industry for doing this on a regular scheduled basis. Because, some recycling/scrap processors emphasis on safety is less than the aluminium plants. So, when their customer tours the recycling/scrap plant they can make recommendations on safety related matters, and in someway force their supplier to comply. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted numerous incidents from recycling/scrap processors in the past. Here is a recent incident that emphasizes the hazard of fires and explosions in these type of facilities:

At 18:12 on the evening of January 7, 2021 an explosion occurred in the workshop of the old factory of (company name omitted). The accident caused 1 death, 6 serious injuries, and 14 minor injuries. Yesterday, a reporter from a local newspaper rushed to (town name omitted). Workers and witnesses from the factory described the incident.

It is understood that (plant name) is currently the largest demonstration base for the recycling of waste batteries and a model factory for clean production of waste batteries. It is also a key introduction for Hunan Province to build the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" for the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" for the economic integration of Chang-Zhu-Tan project.

Many explosions in the factory building a mushroom cloud

The factory building burst into flames, and the flames and air waves rising into the sky were like huge mushroom clouds. After the incident on the evening of the 7th, this shocking scene spread quickly on the Internet platform.

Multiple live videos showed that there were several explosions in the factory, and the fire blazed into the sky, reflecting the night like day. A number of fire trucks rushed to the scene to start rescue, whistling one after another.

It is understood that after the explosion, a total of 36 fire trucks and 288 firefighters were dispatched to the scene for disposal.

Rescue personnel thoroughly cleaned up the scene and verified that the explosion accident of (company name omitted), Ltd. caused 1 death and 20 injuries (6 of which were seriously injured). Monitoring by the ecological environment department showed that the ambient air quality around the accident plant was normal, and the aftermath work is being done quickly.

The injured claimed that improper fire extinguishing led to an explosion

After the incident, some of the injured were taken to a local hospital. Last night, a reporter from the local newspaper rushed to the burn department on the 5th floor of the hospital. Two injured workers were receiving treatment. One of them was lying on the hospital bed with his hands wrapped in thick gauze. Another injured worker with gauze on his head told a reporter from the local newspaper that when the incident happened, everyone opened the fire hydrant to extinguish the fire, but an explosion did not occur. As for why the explosion occurred, he is not clear.

A woman who was also hospitalized in the burn department said that at 7 o'clock in the evening of the incident, several injured were sent to the burn department of the hospital. The video she took with her mobile phone at that time showed an injured worker lying on a mobile hospital bed with blood on his face, and many doctors and nurses in the aisle were busy treating. Yesterday, people came to visit one after another, and several injured were transferred to (a nearby city). Another patient in the burn department said that in the ward where the wounded were located, people were guarded all day yesterday. They wanted to see the situation inside, but they were stopped.

Earlier, an injured employee of the company said in an interview with other media that there was a fire in the plant at that time, and someone fetched water to extinguish the fire, but he never expected that the burning material should not be exposed to water. Explosion. The staff member also said that there were two rounds of explosions, and employees were basically injured in the first round of explosions. After the first round of explosions, everyone evacuated the plant.

A local Fire Officer also issued a notice, saying that because of the storage of aluminum powder in the factory, it is impossible to use water, carbon dioxide, etc. to extinguish the fire, and can only use sand and gravel to extinguish the fire.

There were dozens of people sorting and picking goods in the factory before the incident

At 8 o'clock last night, a reporter from local newspaper came to (company name omitted) in (town omitted). A pile of yellow sand was placed not far from the company's gate. A person familiar with the situation told reporters that this was the sand left from the fire on the evening of the 7th.

The reporter noticed that dozens of (company) employees wearing yellow helmets and blue uniforms were standing around (outside the plant). One of the company employees told reporters that he and others came from the company's new plant mainly to help clean up the plant.

"It contains used ternary precursors." The staff member said that the company recycles the used ternary precursors and re-extracts usable new products. Before the incident, dozens of people were sorting and picking goods in the factory, and the huge shock wave generated by the deflagration caused them to be injured. Generally speaking, the ternary precursor fire cannot be extinguished with water, and he does not know what happened.

When the reporter was interviewing, a fire truck drove from (nearby town) and drove into the company park. The staff member said that the fire in the plant had already been under control, and the fire staff came mainly to check for other safety hazards.

Witnesses said that the company’s plant caught fire last year

Recalling the scene at the time of the incident, the witness (name omitted) was still a little afraid. His company is directly opposite (company name). When the incident occurred, he was only a road away from the explosive plant.

"The flames are blazing, and the smoke makes people breathless." (witness) told reporters that his company had hundreds of employees. After a fire broke out in the factory opposite, the company urgently notified all employees to evacuate. Almost all employees, including him, withdrew to the end of (name of road). At that time, the smoke was too heavy, and he felt a little better after wearing several masks.

In order to avoid the fire, (witness), who was supposed to be on night shift at the company that day, prepared to open a room to sleep in an outside hotel. "At around 1 am, the fire was basically under control, and I went back to the company to sleep."

"In July last year, there was a fire in the opposite factory." (witness) said that he had worked in (road name) for 5 years, during which time there had been at least 3 to 4 fires in the opposite factory. "The biggest one is this one."

Yesterday, a reporter from (local newspaper) found that on the relevant news page, many netizens left messages saying that (company name) was by no means the first time to catch fire.

We offer our sincere condolences to the deceased worker(s)’ family, friends, and coworkers. We pray that the injured workers recover fully from their burns. We are pleased that the injured workers were transported to multiple hospitals. Thus preventing one hospital being overwhelmed with the injured. Though the news article stated 6 seriously injured, and 14 slightly injured. Subsequent news media articles are increasing the injury count. Sadly, we would expect some of the workers to succumb to their injuries. Why? We assume that the workers were not wearing fire resistant clothing and their clothes ignited.

What happened? We do not know exactly. It will take months for a final investigative report to be released.

Other news reports state that an accumulation of “aluminium foil” caught fire and exploded. The news media article used in this post includes interviews with some of the injured workers. These workers said a fire broke out and they immediately put water on it. Which in hindsight was the wrong move. Why? Because of the other combustible material. The news article stated that there was aluminium powder at the recycling plant. If aluminium powder catches fire and a water jet from a fire hose is used. The powder will become airborne and could ignite. A small powder fire could result in a huge explosion if a water jet is used. This point is further reinforced in the news article when the local fire officer “it is impossible to use water, carbon dioxide, etc. to extinguish the fire, and can only use sand and gravel to extinguish the fire.”

We pray that every reader knows this placard. This placard should be located at anywhere combustibles that water cannot be applied to are present.  

We are thankful that no fireman was injured or killed in this incident. From the witness accounts this plant had fires in the past. The description of this plant in terms of size and production leads us to wonder on what volumes of aluminium powder, foil, shavings, etc. was in the plant at the time of the incident. One news article stated that the “old” plant where the fire and subsequent explosions occurred had a capacity of 15,000 tons. While the company’s new plant has a capacity of 65,000 tons. It would be an understatement to say that these plants in terms of capacity is huge. With that at any point in time the combustible material that is present in each plant is substantial. We are confident that the government investigative report will be thorough. We pray that the company will take the report findings and implement them in both plants.

This is not the first aluminium powder, dust, shavings explosion. When they occur the damage can be astonishing. As we mourn the loss of a worker’s life and the injuries of other workers. We acknowledge that if this fire and explosion occurred on a daylight shift the toll would be substantially higher. The accumulation of aluminium powder is very dangerous if it becomes airborne. The APSB has posted numerous incidents involving this hazard. The Aluminium Times Magazine had several articles on this topic. They can be found here.

Lastly and most importantly, we do not place blame on the company nor the workers in this or any incident. All we care about, all we pray about is that by publicizing this incident we can prevent a recurrence from occurring. We pray that the reader will take this incident and look upon their own practices and procedures and look for similarities. Do you have a large stock of aluminium powder? Do you have the proper signage regarding fire fighting practices near the stockpile? 

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