"Rescued by colleagues and then helicoptered...."

Hazards associated with furnaces are well known in our industry. Yet some workplaces and workers fail to acknowledge the severity of the hazard. On our plant tours we commonly see workers fail to understand the hazards with furnaces. We always make our hosts aware of our observations. Here is an incident from November 2025

A resident of (town name omitted), in the company of (town name omitted) the victim was using an industrial furnace used for aluminum processing. Rescued by colleagues and then helicoptered to (a nearby city 60 km away).

According to the first reconstruction, the worker, intent on using an industrial furnace used for aluminum processing, received immediate help from colleagues who were with him and who in the meantime asked for the intervention of the (local fire department), who arrived on the scene with an ambulance. In consideration of the injured man's clinical picture, the helicopter rescue was alerted, which in a few minutes arrived in the skies of (town name omitted) and shortly afterwards left for the (a hospital 60 km away), which has a very modern burn center, where the forty-year-old was hospitalized in yellow code.

The worker's condition would be serious but he would not be in danger of life. On the other hand, the exact contours of the episode and the exact dynamics of the incident remain to be defined, a task that will be up to the (governmental safety) inspectors who intervened in (in the town), as happens in these circumstances, with (police) who took care of the investigations.

The news media articles did not include how the worker was burned. Workers get burned near a furnace by either molten metal contact or exposure to the fuel source (natural gas, propane, etc.)

Regardless of how the worker was burned. We pray for the workers that they recover fully. We pray for the worker’s family and friends who will care for their loved one as they recover.

We do wonder what fabric the injured worker was wearing. If the fabric was not fire resistant, we assume it would ignite. We will reach out to our contacts at this plant and inquire.

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