Explosion at anodizing plant kills one injures several....

 

The use of anodizing in our industry is commonplace. Many extrusion plants have onsite anodizing departments. We have toured many anodizing departments looking for hidden hazards. Sadly, we will remember this tragedy.

 

Authorities have released more details about a fatal explosion on (name) Street in (town name) Wednesday afternoon.

 

County Emergency Management says a vacuum truck waste hauler from (company name) was removing an alkaline lye solution from a holding tank at (the anodizing company) on (name of street omitted) when white smoke or steam started coming from the area of the truck which was parked directly in front of the building.

The tank containing approximately 300 gallons of the solution reportedly failed at its end cap seam sending the cap into a vacant lot and the tank went through the exterior of the building, through an interior partition hitting a support beam before finally coming to a stop near the rear of the building.

Authorities say a 34-year-old died when the flying tank struck him and another employee working near the center of the building. Also injured was the driver of the truck who was thrown into the vacant lot and a (town name) city employee and (local) firefighter who had seen the initial smoke while eating at a restaurant and went to help.

(local) Fire Department Chief says his brother (was the fire fighter the responded to the smoke) suffered second and third-degree burns from his chest up and chemical burns in his mouth and eyes.

The fire department chief’s brother remains at a University Medical Center in major city (50 kilometers away) and is unable to talk but is doing good Fire Department Chief says adding his family would like to thank all of the emergency personnel along with everyone who has reached out to help.

The (name omitted) State Fire Marshall and the (name omitted) Environmental Cabinet are investigating the explosion and at this time authorities believe that for some reason an organic fat such as cooking oil became mixed with the alkaline wastewater in the tank which resulted in an exothermic saponification reaction.

This reaction reportedly raised the temperature inside the tank causing the water portion of the solution to boil and raising the pressure inside it to a point beyond its designed strength resulting in the failure of the tank seam.

Two people were reportedly transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. The road was blocked off as hazmat, officials with the EPA, and other investigators worked to clear the area and investigate what happened. The anodizing company specializes in custom Aluminum Anodizing to include Type IC, II Sulfuric Acid & Type III Hard Coat Anodizing to include both Clear and Color Classes.

We offer our sincere condolences to family, friends, and coworkers of the worker who died in this explosion. We pray that the injured firefighter and two other individuals recover fully from their injuries and have no scars. We hope that the company provides mental health counseling to all employees in the future. 

We hope that this incident will result in changes at anodizing companies or workplaces with anodizing departments. That any contractor that removes waste have their containers empty before removing any anodizing waste.

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