"caught fire due to hot aluminum that had been sprayed upwards ...."

The number one misconception with molten metal in the aluminium industry in our opinion is that the mass or volume of the metal is directly proportional to the severity of the hazard. We feel that is why some specific fields in our industry run into a lot of problems. Here is a recent incident highlighting the hazard that even a small amount of molten metal can cause a world of problems.

 

The fire brigade, police and rescue service started the weekend with a large-scale operation: The ceiling paneling at (die casting plant) in Europe caught fire due to hot aluminum that had been sprayed upwards during a manufacturing process. The 19 employees on the shift were able to get themselves to safety. When the fire brigade arrived with around 80 comrades, there were no more people in the building. As a precaution, a "mass casualty" was triggered, so that a total of a senior emergency doctor, two other emergency doctors and nine ambulances rushed to (to the plant). The fire itself was under control after a short time, but the damage appears to be considerable. The (nearby street) had to be completely closed for around an hour and a half for the duration of the operation.

 

A supply tent was set up in the parking lot of an adjacent supermarket in order to examine all employees in detail. In the end, however, nobody was injured. In addition to the rescue service of the (local) district, the (three) local fire brigades and the police were on duty. The (nearby street) was completely closed for the duration of the mission. The problem that the fire brigade comrades faced on site was that the aluminum stoves could not be extinguished with water. The fire brigade, which was on site with the turntable ladder, was supported by another turntable ladder from (nearby town) and the (and another nearby town), which searched the scene of the fire with a drone. 

 

Another news media article:

"When our emergency services arrived, the roof had already ignited. Everyone had already left the hall," says Operations Manager and City Fire Chief, describing the arrival of the (town name omitted) fire brigade. At around 7.30 p.m., the emergency services were alerted to (name of street). The ceiling construction in a production hall of an industrial company caught fire. Due to a technical defect, one of the production machines sprayed liquid aluminum onto the ceiling and, according to the local police, it caught fire. The fire quickly spread to the filter system installed on the roof. The emergency services extinguished the fire from the outside with water and quickly got the fire under control.

The ambulance service was there with seven ambulances and set up a tent in an adjacent supermarket parking lot. Around 20 people who worked in the hall were cared for there. Fortunately, no one was injured in the fire.

The local fire brigade was on site with around 70 emergency services. The on-call service of the works fire brigade as well as two vehicles from the (nearby town 9 km away) fire brigade and the local police were also on site. (street where the plant is) had to be closed for about an hour.

We are ecstatic that no one was injured in this incident. We pray that the building can be easily repaired and production was not hindered too long.

The second news article which included quotes from the local fire chief was quite informative. We learned, “one of the production machines sprayed liquid aluminum onto the ceiling. Which ignited and spread to the ventilation system. Thankfully all 20 workers were able to evacuate and the local fire department responded quickly.

We have reported on other incidents where die casting machines have an issue and molten metal is projected upwards. Some of these past incidents were no doubt molten metal explosions. Regardless of the reason, molten metal hitting any ceiling normally results in some combustible material igniting. Ceiling fires are difficult to extinguish. Thankfully, this ceiling/roof fire was able to be extinguished quickly.

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