Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

An explosion took place around 3:00 am in a 28-tonne electric furnace inside a steel mill. The POI (Internal Emergency Response Plan) was activated, all fluid feeds were shut down and local fire-fighters were alerted. The molten metal was transferred from the furnace using a ladle. Local rescue crews were not called to the scene as the pressure surge from the blast was confined to the furnace (furnace crown brought down internally). No injuries were reported since personnel were not in the vicinity at the time of the explosion. No layoffs had to be scheduled either.

The leading potential cause of the accident was the same as that responsible for the explosion that occurred in this same facility on February 8, 2008 (see ARIA reference no. 34239), i.e. water / molten metal contact due to the presence of water in significant quantity being introduced via a “big bag” of in-house recycled dust as part of the steelmaking process. These bags were being stored outdoors. It would appear that the loading operator did not comply with the set of internal rules established following the previous accident, which forbade the use of dust bags that would have been exposed for more than one day to the open air. Management reinforced these procedures and tightened controls on all charging of materials in the furnace.