"We had another fire almost exactly a year to the day.."

No matter how much or how little information about an incident is in an Aluminium Plant Safety Blog post. We firmly believe that each and every post can be used as a learning tool to make your plant safer. Here is a recent story that we’ll comment on at the end:

Factory workers in Witham, England had to be evacuated this afternoon (June 17, 2015) after a major fire tore through a metal working facility.

Firefighters were scrambled to Amtek Aluminium in Freebournes Close at 2.33pm after receiving calls that 30 per cent of a foundry roof was ablaze.

Four fire engines and an aerial ladder platform were called to the fire, which is believed to have started in a furnace, before spreading to various hotspots in the roof space.

A local fire station officer who was part of the command team on scene, said: "We initially sent two appliances but then immediately extended that to four because of the fire's intensity. "It's a really warm day so it is pretty full on in there. But now we've got the fire under control and we are managing it.

"Once we get to the point where we're dealing with a cold scene we can then start investigating the fire and begin a process of elimination. At the moment there is a large amount of dust around so it could quite easily reignite.

"But there are no casualties and the factory's evacuation procedures worked very well," added the 50-year-old, who has been a firefighter for 26 years.

The roof measures 100 metres by 50 metres and dozens of workmen were forced to spend more than two hours on a grass verge next to Freebournes Close while they waited for fire crews to secure the area.

A worker, who is one of the firm's tool makers, told the Chronicle work had only just started on repairing fire damage from a blaze at the site in June last year.

The Black Notley resident, said: "We had another fire almost exactly a year to the day and parts of the factory are still being repaired from that incident.

"I knew straight away it was serious because we have fire drills once a month and they're usually on a Thursday. When we were evacuated there was this really strong smell of burning plastic.

"The smoke was a sort of light black colour. As soon as I saw that type of smoke I knew it was major. It wasn't the ideal way to start my shift; I don't clock off until 10pm tonight." As of 5.45pm, crews are making steady progress with one jet and one hose reel to tackle the fire, which is now down to 10 per cent alight.

One appliance from Witham attended the scene, which was joined by another from Chelmsford and two more from Maldon. The aerial ladder platform was sent from Colchester.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog congratulates Amtek Aluminium for successfully evacuating their facility with no injuries. This may sound like a minimal accomplishment. It was not. The APSB has posted incidents where emergency evacuations resulted in injuries.

Amtek Aluminium took seriously the importance of emergency evacuations by have a drill once a month. The worker quoted in the story stated that he realized that it was not a drill because drills were occurring on Thursdays, not on Wednesdays. The APSB would recommend randomly choosing which day for drills held.

It is safe to assume that some if not all of the fire stations that were called to this incident were aware of the hazards in this aluminium plant. Sadly, the APSB is aware of 2-3 firefighters who perish annually in aluminium plants. The APSB feels that any life that is lost in our plants to be very sad. But the loss of any ems worker in an aluminium plant is even sadder. Why? because these individuals choose to go into our plants to respond to an emergency and due to a lack of knowledge they good intentions make a bad situation worse.

This is a past incident involving a dross fire in a dumpster. The fire department were unaware that placing water on smoldering aluminium dross would result in an explosion. One fireman died, several were injured due to the explosion that resulted when water was poured on the fire. This could have been prevented if the aluminium company had trained the local ems departments about the hazards at their plant. 

It is your plant’s responsibility to train, educate, provide tours, etc. to the local EMS services. The goal is for all EMS personnel to be aware of the hazards in your plant. Including but not limited to the general layout of the facility and the location of the emergency utility shutoffs. The APSB acknowledges that many plants have an “ems binder” at the front gate. Which is supposed to be given to the responding ems department. That should be the minimum that your plant does in preparation for emergency personnel to arrive on site.

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article about training emergency personnel.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration has a great document on workplace evacuations. It can be downloaded here.

Lastly, several workers were quoted by the news media above. For whatever reason, no aluminium company management were quoted. It is recommended that aluminium plant management be available to provide news media with information. What amount of information that management decides to put forth is up to them. But, we would caution against using the “no comment” that is so common in times of chaos. We acknowledge that in times of emergency the last thing managers want to do is deal with the local news media. Nevertheless, the plant management should have a plan in place dealing with the news media. It is always regrettable when the information provided is by the aluminium workers and/or emergency management personnel and not by plant management.

The APSB wonders if the local media came here to find out what had occurred in this incident. Sometimes the news media will ask workers instead of seeking out company management for comment. It is recommended that all workers be instructed to tell local news media to talk with company management. That would ensure that the message is consistent with all news media. 

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