"14 workers who were working near....were burned."

Housekeeping is a direct reflection upon the owner, plant or department manager. If they do not care the workplace will be disorganized and dirty. Here is a recent incident that we believe poor housekeeping contributed to the incident.

In one afternoon in February 2026, the (police radio of the local) Police Station, (name omitted) Province, received a report that a fire had occurred at (company name omitted), which is a factory that manufactures tires for car wheels, motorcycle wheels, and aluminum wheels for motorcycle wheels.

Initially, it was found that there were more than 200 workers, both (native) and foreign workers of (neighboring country) nationality. The fire incident caused a total of 14 people to be injured by burns. The injured were partially burned and slightly injured...

The (organization name omitted) volunteer rescue staff rushed the injured from the scene. The injured were distributed and transported to (four hospitals).

Meanwhile, disaster prevention and relief officers with more than 10 water trucks, as well as support vehicles and staff spent nearly half an hour spraying water, but they were unable to extinguish the fire. Before the coordination of foam, fine sand and fire extinguishing chemicals were injected for a total of nearly 1 hour, the fire could be controlled to a limited extent and extinguished.

Initial inquiries revealed that the cause was fire flakes from work. It was blown on magnesium (a combustible metal), which is a precursor used in the tire manufacturing process, causing an explosion. As a result, 14 workers who were working near the chemical were burned.

 

The police will summon the people who were present at the incident to give statements and coordinate with the Evidence Division to investigate the obvious cause. Before proceeding with the legal process....

We pray that all injured workers recover fully from their burns.

The fire department made the situation worse. By adding water to the magnesium fire. Which is extremely dangerous because burning magnesium breaks down the water into hydrogen and oxygen. This violent reaction releases hydrogen gas, which ignites and triggers explosions, making the fire burn much hotter and more intensely.

This incident highlights the importance of communicating with local fire departments on the safe methods for responding to the unique hazards in your workplace. The fire department was very lucky, and their addition of water did not injure nor kill anyone. We have reported on incidents where fire department and nearby workers were injured and/or killed when fire department personnel placed water onto a metal fire.

Every reader should ask “Does our local fire department(s) know how to safely respond to the unique hazards in our workplace?” If you don’t know, then simply ask the fire chief “How would your department respond to a magnesium fire, a confined space rescue, machinery entrapment, etc.?”

Please comment.