"sprayed the fire with water, there was an explosive reaction..."

 

Nothing makes us sadder than an injury or fatality to fire department personnel while dealing with a hazard in our industry. Why? Because these injuries and fatalities are the result of a lack awareness and education to hazards present in our facilities. Here is a recent incident that should highlight the importance to everyone in our industry that fire department personnel need to be trained prior to them entering our plants.

 

Around 50 firefighters and a Hazmat team were called to a fire at an industrial building one Tuesday during the month of February 2021.

 

According to the (town omitted) Fire Department, the automatic fire alarm went off in the building at the corner of (two streets) at 6:09 one evening. Firefighters were on scene within 4 minutes.

 

Crews found heavy smoke inside the building. They followed it to discover the fire in a machine shop in the back of the structure.

 

Firefighters say when they sprayed the fire with water, there was an explosive reaction. A Hazmat team was called in with special equipment to put the fire out and “extinguish the metal shavings that were burning.”

 

The fire was put out without injuries to any firefighters or civilians. Damage was limited to one section of the building. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

 

We are ecstatic that no one was injured. We have reported on similar circumstances where fire department personnel did something very similar to this incident. In those incidents the resulting explosion injured and killed workers.

 

Does your plant offer tours to your local fire departments? If not why?

 

Please comment.