The wire-drawing machine is fed by two furnaces facing each other. Molten aluminium is poured from the furnaces into chutes to the wire-drawing machine. These furnaces, which have a capacity of 50 t, are fed by 11-t ladles of molten metal from the potline. They are transported by truck.
At around 11:50 p.m., 100 kg of molten aluminium poured out onto the floor of a workshop of an aluminium smelting plant following a fire under a smelting furnace. The fire spread over a 50 m² area and under a chlorine detection cabinet and the control room of a wire-drawing machine. The operator implemented the site’s internal emergency plan at 1:00 a.m. The workshop employees were evacuated. Firefighters extinguished the fire at around 2:30 a.m. using alumina powder. The furnace’s sensitive supply networks (gas and chlorine), located underground in the gutters, were coated with alumina powder. This preventive measure, which is indicated in plant’s safety report, was effective.
The fire destroyed the electrical networks, chlorine detection system, and the wire-drawing machine’s control room. The 3–4 t of spilt and solidified aluminium had to be cut away from the floor. The two smelting furnaces and the wire-drawing machine were temporarily shut down.
The fire started after a technician poured a ladle of molten aluminium into a furnace that was already full. The molten metal then leaked out via the furnace’s pouring spout. Furthermore, the operator stated that the reason why the metal spilt onto the floor because the technician apparently had not fit the gasket between the furnace and the metal collection chute. In addition, the filling level in the furnaces had not been visually checked even though the only preventive measure mentioned in the safety report appears to be a daily visual check. The operator also said that a truck may have been sent to the wrong furnace.
The operator is considering installing a bund to channel spills away from electrical conduits and cable raceways in the event of an accident.
