Industrial Fire Prevention

From Industry Tap and George Mason University Crank It Up! George Mason Students Designed Device That Puts Out Fires With Sound Waves By: Marshall Smith | March 26th, 2015 YouTube/George Mason University George Mason University’s Seth Robertson and Viet Tran have designed a device capable of  extinguishing fires with sound waves! Who knew cranking up dubstep and waiting for the drop could actually be used for something  helpful? Using $600 of equipment in total, encompassing amps, a speaker and something thing they call a  collimator, Robertson and Tran discovered sound in the 30 to 60 hertz range seems to vibrate the oxygen away from the fuel, causing the flame to die out. The two students have already proven many of their peers and professors wrong, and actually already have a preliminary patent for their invention. Next, is deciding whether or not the idea is scalable and if a full patent is necessary? I’ll guess we’ll just have to wa...

From 5NEWSOnline.com Three Hospitalized After Flash Fire at OK Foods Feed Mill LEFLORE COUNTY (KFSM) – Three people are hospitalized with severe burns Tuesday morning (Mar. 24) after a flash fire at the OK Foods Feed Mill in LeFlore County. Two people remain in critical condition at a hosptial in Tulsa. The other worker was transported to Sparks Hospital with minor injuries. An officer with Heavener Police said the flash fire happened at the mill on Highway 128 around 7:30 p.m. Monday night (Mar. 23). Authorities said it happened on the third floor of the mill, where two contract welders were working. Authorities said grain dust suddenly caught fire. Several employees were inside the building at the time of the incident jumping to safety from three stories up, authorities said. Most of them were able to make it outside of the building without any injuries. The conditions and the identities of the burn victims are not b...

From CKPG | TV Online Inspector Says Lakeland Lacked Fire Safety Plan Posted by: Aileen Machell March 9, 2015 Fire inspection reports for the Lakeland Mill were reviewed at an inquest Monday. A current captain with Prince George Fire Rescue testified regarding a series of inspections at the  Lakeland Mill before the April 2012 explosion. Fire Prevention Officer Captain Steve Feeney told the  inquest Lakeland was typically inspected on a yearly basis. During an inspection in 2008, fire officials recognized a need for a mill fire safety plan. Feeney  alleged there was no plan in place at the mill during an inspection two years later. He says there was still no plan in inspections that followed. Other reported issues included emergency exit lighting not being illuminated and an evacuation plan not being posted. Jurors viewed  a US Chemical Safety Board video, which listed wood products as a potential source of combustible dust explosions. Feen...

From the Vancouver Sun Progress made in controlling wood dust in mills, agency reports   Scrutiny continues on industry after deadly wood dust-fuelled explosions in 2012 By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun February 25, 2015 Smoke rises from the burned out Babine Forest Products mill in Burns Lake in January 2012. Photograph by: JONATHAN HAYWARD, THE CANADIAN PRESS The B.C. sawmill industry is making progress in controlling potentially explosive wood dust, but monitoring will continue, says WorkSafeBC.   The chief agency responsible for workplace safety issued only three orders for wood dust problems during the latest inspection period between Oct. 1, 2014 and Jan. 31 that involved 117 sawmills. The results, however, cannot be compared to those from the four previous inspection rounds when dozen of orders were issued because this time WorkSafeBC gave companies that had a good wood dust safety record the option of conducting their own daily inspec...

With the addition of layered fire and explosion protection systems, this is an excellent article on dryer system operation and maintenance for prevention of fires and explosions. From Process Heating and Becky Long, Thompson Dehydrating Co. How to Prevent Dryer System Fires and Explosions Knowing what causes fires and explosions is the first step in prevention. By Becky Long, Thompson Dehydrating Co. February 13, 2015 Uncontrolled and unplanned fires and explosions in the plant are obviously undesirable. The most important reason to take measures to reduce and, hopefully, eliminate fires and explosions in a dryer system is personnel safety. At the end of the day, you want all employees to leave the plant in the  same condition as they entered. While a slow fire may give personnel time to react, an explosion  could kill or severely injure someone who happens to be in the wro...

From Go Wood and Domtar: Paper Made Here: A Portrait on Paper Paper Made Here: A Portrait on Paper Pretty straightforward message here today. North American wood and paper industries are among the most productive, most professional, and environmentally-conscientious companies in the world. Our environmentalist community can take a share of the credit for that last one. It's a great story of when people work together for the right things, good things happen. So let's give credit where credit is due, and celebrate the results. Let's hope that our efforts influence others in areas of the world where industrial production is not as professional, nor conscientious. Communication, and collaborations are indirect ways to send that message. But the best, most direct and effective way to share our industrial heritage is through the marketplace.  "Buy American" is not, at its root, a dirty protectionist rallying cry for wealthy  corporate shareholders or flag-wav...

From Chemical Processing Stop Explosion Propagation Choose a suitable method to limit damage elsewhere in the process By David Grandaw, IEP Technologies Jan 28, 2015 Industrial explosions are a constant threat to any facility that handles combustible vapors or finely divided combustible dust. Most organic material will burn in a solid form; if this same material is in a dust or vapor form, under certain conditions it will explode. Combustible dust and vapor explosions happen frequently in the processing industry. Sometimes these explosions remain confined to the process vessel in which they originate. However, more often than not, the initial explosion will result in a secondary explosion with devastating results outside the vessel or through interconnecting ducts or pipes. Flame Propagation Figure 1. Highly energetic explosions can occur in connected equipment. Having a comprehensive plan to prevent an explosion from happening under normal circumstan...