"a melt furnace exploded...some were injured"

 

The importance of fire-resistant fabric is highlighted in every incident where a worker is burned from molten metal. Why? Because the vast majority of incidents where worker(s) were burned was because they lacked proper safety clothing. Here is a recent incident that could have been much, much worse.

Some employees were injured during an explosion one afternoon in January 2025 at a (die-casting) facility, according to the city's fire department.

Around 5:35 p.m. the (local) Fire Department was dispatched to (the company) after reports of an explosion and smoke in the building.

A melt furnace exploded in the facility that recasts melted aluminum in order to manufacture automobile suspension parts, said the local Fire Chief.

"There were some injuries reported; a few employees were assessed on scene and released, and another was taken to Medical Center and later airlifted to a burn center 100+ km away for burns caused by the explosion," the fire department said in an evening post on social media.

The fire chief said other injuries on the scene included minor scrapes and burns.

The explosion caused a small fire he said firefighters were able to extinguish within 10 to 15 minutes.

"We couldn't use water due to the materials in the fire, but we were able to use extinguishers to put out the fire pretty quickly," the fire chief said.

He said the damage to the facility was minor.

As of the next afternoon, the cause of the explosion was still under investigation, the fire chief said.

A call to the company was not immediately returned the following afternoon.

We offer our sincere prayers for the injured workers. From our past experience on reporting on hundreds of molten metal incidents. We assume the worker was wearing not wearing the proper safety clothing. We would assume cotton fabric and maybe even a short sleeve shirt. This is common in die cast facilities.

We learned from the injured worker’s mom that her son was severely burned and had to have skin grafts that took more than 50 surgical staples to secure. The injured worker has a long road to recovery. We pray for quick recovery with no issues.

We will update this post when further information becomes known. The workers from this workplace are speculating that a water bottle was placed in a scrap bin which was charged. Our question would be, why are water bottles allowed in your workplace?

Please comment.