Three employees injured trying extinguish the fire.

Workers have to be instructed and trained to immediately call the local fire department if a fire breaks out in their workplace. Any delay in notifying the fire department can result in a small fire growing larger. Here is a recent example of what can go wrong when workers fail to notify the fire department immediately.

On the premises of the aluminium company in a town in Central Europe, there was a fire of aluminum dust on Thursday evening. Three employees were injured, according to the emergency services. Five fire brigades with 54 helpers were called out. The flames were contained with several special metal fire powder extinguishers.

According to the district fire brigade command, the fire was caused by the waste container of an extraction system in the outdoor area. The three employees had injured themselves during the first attempts to extinguish the fire. "Aluminium burns at well over 1,000 degrees Celsius and cannot be extinguished with water," the emergency services explained.

Enormous smoke development

In addition to the company fire brigade, the five fire brigades were also deployed with the telescopic mast platform. The district command reported enormous smoke development. However, there was no danger to employees, residents or the environment at any time.

We pray that the three injured workers recover fully from their injuries. Extinguishing dust fires is very dangerous. We have reached out to the workplace to inquire on the events leading to the workers being injured. We wonder when the local fire department was notified. We also wonder if the workers used water or Class D extinguishing agent to extinguish the fire. Dust fires should only be safely extinguished with Class D extinguishing agent. Why? Because a water stream from a hose can result with the dust pile become an airborne cloud result in either a flash fire or if contained an explosion.

Light Metal Age and Aluminium Times magazines had articles about dust hazards. They can be found here.

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