"100 fire fighters needed to extinguish fire..."

 

There is a falsehood that the mass of molten metal is directly related to seriousness of the hazard. Here is a recent incident highlighting that even a small mass of metal can have serious consequences.  

 

Major fire in die casting plant claims two injured

 

Since (one) morning, the hall of a car parts manufacturer in (location name omitted) near (location name omitted)in the district of (location name omitted) has been on fire. For reasons that are still unknown, a fire has broken out in the die-casting production area. Two employees were injured. The local fire brigades are extinguishing the fire with over 100 men.

 

Shortly after 9 a.m., the alarm was received in the state control center. Ten fire brigades with more than 100 personnel are currently working on the premises of the company in (location name omitted), which manufactures car spare parts from aluminium.

 

Difficult extinguishing work

The fire is under control control, but according to area fire department spokesman, the extinguishing work was very difficult, as highly flammable magnesium caught fire, which cannot be extinguished with water. "Currently, attempts are being made to fight the flames with five cubic meters of quartz sand, which is emptied over it."

 

We pray that the two injured workers recover fully from their injuries. From the news reports we assume the fire started in the aluminium die casting production and ignited some magnesium nearby.

 

Thankfully, the responding fire fighters were educated in how to safely extinguish a magnesium fire. Only Class D fire extinguishing agent can be used to extinguish a magnesium fire. A magnesium fire must be smothered.

 

All too often workplaces have enough fire extinguishers on hand to meet local governmental regulations. But those regulations typically focus on the total area under roof and only secondarily does it consider specific hazards. Most workplaces assume that the local fire department has enough class d fire extinguishers on hand to extinguish any size blaze at their aluminium plant. They are shocked to learn that the local fire department do not have a large enough stock to exitinguish a class d fire (metal).

 

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