One of the most dramatic
incidents that can occur in our workplaces is an explosion. Here is a recent
incident involving an explosion:
There was an explosion one
night during the week of March 12, 2023 at a manufacturing facility. The news
media says the explosion happened around 9:45 p.m
The local Department of
Public Safety told (news media) on scene that all employees are accounted for,
and one was taken to the hospital with severe burn injuries.
"I did see clear signs
of structural damage. The exterior walls of the building had actually exploded
and...sent debris outward," said local Department of Public Safety sergeant
told (news media) on scene. "You can see debris...that had been on the
inside, was actually blown outside."
The flames are from the duct work that ignited. |
“The walls of the building exploded and sent debris outward,” said Department of Public Safety sergeant. “Items that are normally stacked are spread around the floor and walls. The explosion did actually rupture a water sprinkler system pipes so we have water flowing.”
A neighbor captured video
of Friday night's explosion, from 21 miles away, on her security camera.
"This is where they
take large blocks of solid aluminum or magnesium, they melt it down in blast
furnaces and then they use that liquid metal for the rest of the process,"
local Department of Public Safety sergeant said. "So this area
has...tremendous heat." (The company) manufactures aluminum alloy wheels
for the auto industry, according to its website
"One of the challenges
we have with this type of fire is we cannot use water on liquid metal aluminum.
Magnesium reacts violently with water," local Department of Public Safety
sergeant explained. "It's not a traditional firefighting effort. We can't
just put water on it and put it out, so we have to use dry chemicals or we have
to remove the oxygen from the fire." The news media reported on a fire at
the facility back in July 2020 when employees were evacuated after aluminum
particles caught fire inside a furnace.
We pray that the
injured worker recovers from their injuries. It is unknown what the root cause
of the explosion was. This facility has had 2-3 dust fires over the past 20
months. With that said, news media stated that the explosion happened in the
foundry department of the plant. So, we don’t know. Comparing the photos and
injuries to past dust and furnace explosions we would tend to think that this
was a furnace explosion and not a dust explosion. We acknowledge that the duct
work containing dust ignited and burned. Regardless, we don’t know what had
occurred. We will update this incident when we learn more information.
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