"aluminium dross fire in the factory ...."

The generation, storage, processing and/or disposal of dross is filled with numerous hazards. On our travels many times our hosts discount the hazards associated with dross. Here is a recent incident highlighting the hazard if dross ignites.

 

An illegally operating recyclables storage store caught fire in an incident in (location omitted) here over the past two days.

Assistant Fire Superintendent said the fire department received a call about the incident at about 8am one day.

According to him, 25 personnel and three machines from the (name omitted) Fire and Rescue Station were deployed to the scene with a large-scale fire in the area

"Upon arrival at the scene, there was an aluminium dross fire in the factory store," he said in a statement here today.

Assistant Fire Superintendent said that extinguishing operations are still being carried out using soil with the technique of blanketing the burning materials.

He said the extinguishing operations should not use water and foam sources because the substances react with water and produce chemical reactions that produce harmful hydrogen gas that can worsen the fire.

"An excavator unit and two JCB units were used in this operation where the weather conditions were sunny and windy.

"The operation was postponed at 7pm yesterday due to the absence of soil and sand stocks and the operation resumed today," he said.

We are thankful no one was injured in the fire. Obviously we do not condone illegal operations, but dross fires are commonplace.

The number one issue workplaces have with dross fires is not having on hand enough fire extinguishing agent to put a fire out.

Dross fires need to be extinguished with dirt, gravel, lime, salt, etc. BUT NO WATER CAN BE APPLIED!!!!

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