The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog feels all injuries and fatalities are horrible. But, we feel it is worse when firefighters are injured or killed when responding to hazards in our plants. Fire fighters are injured or killed in our opinion for one main reason. A lack of education on how to respond to our unique hazards. Here is a recent incident emphasizing the importance of educating our local fire departments.
How do you fight fire when you can't use water? Firefighters are prepared to deal with these types of situations that can be found when operating in spaces with different chemicals. The fire in a commercial ground in a city in Spain has put these control methods to the test.
On October 18, 2021, at half past nine in the morning, the notice of a fire arrived in a local street. There, a problem in the works of this establishment in which they had been working with metals such as aluminum caused a spectacular fire.
The situation, as explained by the Provincial Firefighters Consortium, required urgent attention. This place was on the ground floor of a four-story building. Neighbors were confined to their homes until full ventilation of the affected space was achieved.
The chief non-commissioned officer of the Elche fire station, has been in charge of coordinating this action. Here he explains how to work when the presence of metals in the air is so high that they behave as if it were a gas , with the consequent risks that it entails.
The deployment
When the firefighters come to cover this emergency, they arrive with their heavy urban pump truck, BUP, with a ladder and a team that included, in addition to the chief non-commissioned officer, a sergeant, a corporal and six other firefighters. As explained Warrant Officer, unless the indication is the opposite, it is assumed that extinction will be done with water, like all fires classified as A .
By releasing the pressurized water through the 25-millimeter mouth of the hose, it came into contact with the amount of powdery metals in suspension. That was the moment when a violent explosion occurred that even caused glass to break . As the firefighters were equipped with the thermal and mechanical protection suit, in addition to the respiratory protection with the air bottles, they were not injured.
The explosion was the signal that the renovations of the premises, which had been unused, were working with metals such as aluminum. Just as the reaction of water with fire originated in this way is instantaneous, it had to be that of the action plan. The fire was class B, it had to be countered with other methods .
These types of fires, the chief non-commissioned officer points out, tend to be very unusual . In this way, those that start from metallic fuels are considered, which could be found in companies where aluminum, magnesium or sodium are used. This was not the forecast they had when they came to the warning of a fire from a low under renovation.
The CAFoam foam was not useful in this case either, sepiolite had to be used. This mineral is applied as sand to smother the fire. This prevents the fire from contacting the oxygen in the air and this is consumed earlier.
As it is a small place, says the noncommissioned officer, the extinction has been possible very quickly. From there, the work with the rest of the building where, although the flames had not reached, the smoke had spread throughout the stairwell . "In these cases a positive pressure fan is put in that injects between 9 and 11 cubic meters of air per second, which causes that overpressure to be generated that causes the smoke to come out through the upper outlet."
Once both fronts were controlled, shortly before eleven in the morning, the service was terminated.
When we began to read this story, we felt that a fire fighter must have been killed. Thankfully, no one was. We have reported on similar incidents and the resulting explosion kills individuals in close proximity. We acknowledge that this incident appears to have occurred in a small workspace on a residential street. Nevertheless, the size of the building. We firmly believe this incident can be used as a learning tool. Aluminium dust/fines/shavings/grinding fires are difficult to extinguish and should never ever have a high pressure stream of water placed onto them. What occurred is the combustible metal was burning in a pile. But when the high pressure water hit the pile the dust became airborne and ignited.
The Aluminium Times Magazine had several articles about the hazards associated with aluminium dust/fines. The articles below can be downloaded here.
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