"furnace explodes....worker has 40% severe burns"

 

The hazard associated with molten metal explosions are well known throughout a majority of our industry. Unfortunately, there are some plants who have the opinion that the total mass of molten metal being handled or processed is directly proportional to the degree of severity of the hazard. That is a false opinion that injures and kills workers every year. Here is a recent story:

An incident on an aluminum melting furnace occurred on one afternoon in Europe during the week of October 17, 2021 at the (aluminium company name omitted) foundry . A 34-year-old employee, seriously burned, was evacuated to hospital (70 km away). They are not noisy, we do not complain. "But this (day), around 1 pm, Guy and Hélène, two neighbors, heard" a boom ", coming from the aluminum foundry. We have a second melting furnace… ”As a reminder, the aluminum  foundry manufactures parts for lighting, for traffic lights, or even plates ...

Rescue intervened (day) at the beginning of the afternoon within the (company name) metallurgy company in the town of (town name omitted) following the explosion of an aluminum melting furnace with a capacity of 500 kg. The explosion left a 34-year-old man seriously injured, with 40% of his body burned. The young man was transferred to a hospital 70 km. The company was paralyzed with 14 employees placed on technical unemployment. 

We pray that the injured worker recovers fully from their burns. We acknowledge we are making some assumptions on our following comments but we do believe that our assumptions are correct. They are correct because we have viewed this foundry’s website and social media site. We comment for two reasons, not to insult the company nor the injured worker. But, to make them aware of our safety observations and to educate anyone who may read our comments. We feel this is a classic example of a company that believes that the severity of a molten metal explosion is directly related to the mass (500 Kg) of metal in their furnace. How wrong is that belief? Well, a worker has 40% burns on their body because they were not wearing appropriate ppe. Photos on the foundry’s website show workers operating the open top furnace wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt. If this company posted any of the photos or videos from their website on LinkedIn. We would have immediately reached out to them and explain that their current practices were no in align with the industry’s best practices toward safety. Sadly, we did not.

It is imperative that workers were primary clothing if they are working with a furnace. If employees are working near a furnace at minimum they should be wearing secondary clothing. It is our opinion that the injured worker in this incident the worker was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt. Companies who handle molten metal have to accept the reality that they will experience a molten metal incident. From molten metal spills, splashes, to explosions. How your workers are dressed in terms of ppe will result in minimizing the workers injuries.

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