Industrial Fire Prevention

From our friend John Astad at the Combustible Dust Policy Institute Blog, NFIRS fire distribution data shows over 500 reported combustible dust related fires and explosions in manufacturing facilities in 2011. Combustible Dust Explosions and Fires-ATEX: 2011 Geographic Distribution Combustible Dust Related Incidents Wednesday, January 30, 2013 2011 Geographic Distribution Combustible Dust Related Incidents Wisconsin 50 Ohio 40 North Carolina 30 Virginia 29 California 26 Georgia 24 Minnesota 22 Texas 22 Illinois 20 The Combustible Dust Policy Institute (CDPI) researched over 500 combustible dust related fires and explosions in manufacturing facilities utilizing 2011 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data provided by the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Data Center. All 50 states report NFIRS data with approximately 23...

Do we know what safety is and do we really believe safety is first?  Safe means not being at risk - not the absence of accidents. From the ProAct Safety Blog , Stop Saying Safety is First Occupational Health & Safety - May 2012 By: Shawn M. Galloway Printable Version The safest places in the world are the ones where no humans wander. Any place a human might venture could never be considered safe. Safety is defined by what we do, not by the result. Any time you reward a result, by default you reward the performance that accomplished it. Was the performance safe or lucky? If you don't know, how will you repeat that result next year? It is still surprising how many organizations continue to define and celebrate safety as the absence of accidents. Yet, well-intended and competent CEOs persist that, "Safety means no accidents." Last year, the CEO of a fortune 500 company told me with all sincerity if his company's employees "fol...

Top 5 most watched NFPA videos of 2012 - #4 - National Fire Protection Association Blog From the top 5 watched NFPA videos of 2012, this video shows the power of fire, how quickly it can spread, and that you need to get out of the area to prevent getting caught in a flashover: Top 5 most watched NFPA videos of 2012 - #4 As we mentioned in our last blog post, we are counting down the top 5 most popular NFPA videos of 2012. In case you missed it, check out the video that came in 5th place now. The 4th place video of 2012 is "Flashover: the Power of Fire." Flashover is the point in which everything in your home catches fire -- no one can survive. See how quickly flashover can occur and how it can be prevented. Home fire sprinklers save lives and property from fire. They act before the fire department is even notified. In this video, we show what happens while a house is burning and the local fire department is on its way.

Safety Culture Implications of Normalization of Deviation, sometimes also called a " Normalcy Bias ".  The normalcy bias , or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a possible problem or disaster . It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a the problem or disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a fire or explosion, or disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation. As applied to the combustible dust processing industries, we have seen...

Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas to All! Thanks, everyone, for making the world a little safer every day. I CHOSE TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY – By Don Merrell: I could have saved a life that day, But I chose to look the other way. It wasn’t that I didn’t care; I had the time, and I was there. But I didn’t want to seem a fool, Or argue over a safety rule. I knew he’d done the job before; If I spoke up he might get sore. The chances didn’t seem that bad; I’d done the same, he knew I had. So I shook my head and walked by; He knew the risks as well as I. He took the chance, I closed an eye; And with that act, I let him die. I could have saved a life that day, But I chose to look the other way. Now every time I see his wife, I know I should have saved his life. That guilt is something I must bear; But isn’t’ something you need to share. If you see a risk that others take That puts their health or life at stake, The question asked or thing you...

From Woodworking network, an excellent article by Jamison Scott with Air Handling Systems on the health and safety issues associated with combustible wood dust. ComDust: What Woodworkers Need to Know By Jamison Scott | 11/28/2012 1:22:00 PM Editor's note: An edited version of this article is in the print and digital editions of December Wood & Wood Products. Below is the article in its entirety. The occurrences and severity of combustible wood dust related fires have been increasing, resulting in an increase in OSHA inspections.   Combustible dust is a serious issue. It has become a top health and safety issue in the woodworking industry. While the first reported combustible dust fire occurred in a 1785 at a flour mill in Italy and over two hundred years later in 2008 a major sugar refinery in the state of Georgia exploded due to combustible dust, in 2012, the woodworking industry saw a major sawmill in British Columbia, Canada, launch a fi...

From the NFPA Today Blog.  There will soon be a new NFPA Standard on Combustible Dust, NFPA 652.  This article is an excellent primer on combustible dust, and describes the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, based on four basic concepts in each of the other NFPA combustible dust standards: hazard identification, hazard assessment, hazard management, and management systems. Basically, you have to first know whether your dust is combustible, and many if not most dusts or "fines" created in manufacturing are potentially combustible, and you have to manage the risks, namely fugitive dust and ignition sources. What are the fundamentals of combustible dusts? - National Fire Protection Association Blog What are the fundamentals of combustible dusts? With the request to enter into a revision cycle approved by the Standards Council, the Preliminary Daft of NFPA 652, Standard on Combustible Dust , is now accepting public input until January 4, 2013. The big question ci...