Industrial Fire Prevention

Programs « Categories « Safety Awakenings Updated: Safety Awakenings is a website by Dave Weber, featuring  900 Power Points, 500 Videos, 75 eBooks, in addition to various other safety talks, videos, podcasts, webinars, and 35 various Apps for safety.  

Life After the Incident: Claims, Cases, Lost Time and the Hidden Cost of Hazards in Utilities Free On-Demand Webinar The act of reporting an incident is just the first step in the entire incident lifecycle. Find out how to deal with incidents and how they can have a significant impact on your business if not managed properly: http://bit.ly/1JXBvuq Request your Free On-Demand Webinar ! " Life After the Incident: Claims, Cases, Lost Time and the Hidden Cost of Hazards in Utilities " – The act of reporting an incident is just the first step in the entire incident lifecycle. Find out how to deal with incidents and how they can have a significant impact on your business if not managed properly. Detailed Description

Designing for Maximum Safety Biomass Magazine - The Latest News on Biomass Power, Fuels and Chemical On Location: Koda Energy Executive Editor Tim Portz paid a visit toeditorial board member Stacy Cook from Koda Energy to get a cover photo. He got a cover photo and a tour of Koda's new fuel receiving infrastructure, designed for maximum safety. By Tim Portz | December 12, 2014 If you’ve heard me talk about Biomass Magazine for more than 10 minutes before, chances are you’ve heard me mention the role that our editorial board plays in the magazine’s planning and production. They truly are invaluable. This week, our team was in the middle of pulling the January 2015 together. I realized last week that so far we didn’t have a great cover option. No problem. Editorial board to the rescue. I called Stacy Cook, VP and General Manager at Shakopee, Minnesota’s Koda Energy. Not only has Stacy has been a consistent participant on our monthly story pitch meetings...

Mill Explosion Injures Three | From Powder/Bulk Solids Mill Explosion Injures Three October 13, 2014 Three mill workers were injured Thursday morning in an explosion at a wood pellet plant in northern British Columbia that was recently fined for "repeated" safety violations. According to Leroy Reitsma, president of Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc., the incident happened at about 8am at a facility near Burns Lake operated by the company. Three workers were injured – one seriously. The cause of the fire was unknown, but was said to have started inside a drying machine during a maintenance shutdown. An investigation is ongoing Two fatal explosions in 2012 at the Burns Lake facility and one in Prince George were linked to combustible wood dust. It is not known if wood dust was the cause of Thursday’s explosion. The plant was the site of a...

Grain and other Combustible Dusts are now Labeled as Hazardous Chemical From FarmFutures.com/blog Grain Dust Labeled a Hazardous Chemical? Defending Agriculture New regulations mean dust at grain elevators may be treated like hazardous chemical release Published on: November 12, 2014 In late October the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an opinion supporting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on regulating businesses that handle and process grain and other agricultural products which create dust. The case was a challenge to OSHA's revised Hazard Communication Standard, which in effect states that grain dust is a hazardous chemical. But you may want a little background on how the  Government's regulatory wheels spin before this makes much sense. OSHA already sets workplace requirements for the control of grain dust which may create fires, explosions and safety hazards associated with grain handling facilities.  OSHA'...

From Chem.info Spontaneous Combustion Destroys Grain Plant Wed, 11/05/2014 - 1:26pm (AP) — Investigators in western New York say spontaneous combustion of animal feed started the fire that destroyed a large grain mill and storage facility operated by Minnesota-based Land O' Lakes. Fire crews from more than two dozen departments battled the fire that broke out Saturday night at Commodity Resource Corp. in the Livingston County town of Caledonia, 15 miles south of Rochester. The company says the site is the largest dairy feed manufacturing facility and dry fertilizer distribution center in the region. The plant was closed at the time of the fire. On Tuesday, Caledonia Deputy Chief John Murray told media outlets the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion. That's the same thing that sparked a September fire at a Cargill feed plant in Salem near the Vermont border.

Lexology DC Circuit rejects challenge to the revised OSHA Hazardous Communication Standard From: Blog Gravel2Gavel Construction Law Blog Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Anthony B. Cavender USA October 27 2014   Author page » On October 24, 2014, the D.C. Circuit rejected a challenge to the revised OSHA Hazardous Communication Standard insofar as it applies to "combustible dust". The case is National Oilseed Processors Association, et al., v. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, et al .  The Standard was substantially revised in 2012 to conform with the Globally Harmonized System, a uniform international chemical labeling system. The Hazard Communication, 77 Fed. Reg. 17,574 (Mar. 26, 2012) (" Final Rule ") designated "combustible dust" as a hazardous chemical subject to the Standard, although OSHA has yet to develop a workplace standar...

Bloomberg BNA "There is a “general consensus” on what constitutes combustible dust" "The final rule, as well as a guidance document issued in 2013, “lay out reasonably consistent and clear instructions” on how employers should decide whether they have a combustible dust hazard, the judge said." HazCom Rule Can Address Combustible Dust, Court Says in Rejecting Industry Challenge Monday, October 27, 2014 from Daily Labor Report® Oct. 24 — A federal appeals court denied a petition Oct. 24 to vacate the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Hazard Communication Standard as it applies to combustible dust. The petitioners argued that the Hazard Communication Standard—a final rule—should be vacated because OSHA failed to give adequate notice that combustible dust would be included in the rule and that combustible dust should instead be addressed in a pending rulemaking on the subject. They also told a three-member panel of the ...

From Composites Manufacturing Magazine OSHA Stalls on Combustible Dust, but NFPA Prepares New Standards ACMA Staff September 25, 2013 OSHA’s combustible dust rulemaking has been delayed, while the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is adding a new standard to address hazard  identification and control. These were key messages presented September  20 at a Small Business Administration event attend by ACMA staff. The dust from grinding or cutting even highly filled composite laminates is  “combustible” when tested using OSHA’s approved test methods. OSHA has cited several composites manufacturers for failure to comply with the current version of NFPA Standard 654, notably for poor housekeeping and locating cyclones and other dust collection equipment indoors. Under OSHA’s National Emphasis Program for combustible dust, the agency is enforcing NFPA standards while it develops its own combustible dust rule. NFPA 654 is the standard for preven...

Explosion, two-alarm fire damages Banks wood pellet manufacturer By Everton Bailey Jr. | ebailey@oregonian.com on July 31, 2014 at 8:37 PM, updated August 01, 2014 at 6:16 AM  A wood pellet manufacture in Banks closed for the day after an explosion and two-alarm fire damaged the business early Thursday. Four employees safely escaped the fire at  West Oregon Wood Products on Northwest Sunset Avenue, said  Banks Fire District  Chief Brian Coussens. The official cause of the explosion and fire are still under investigation. The business creates wood pellets for stoves. The incident was reported about 3:15 a.m., and the business' president, Mike Knobel, said equipment related to air filtration in the pellet creation process is suspected to have caused the explosion. Several pieces of production equipment sustained severe fire-related damages, Coussens said. The blaze was extinguished with no injuries. Knobel said he was grateful to the r...

Wood Pellet Plant Burns to Ground in Idaho Kathy Hedberg On Aug 5, 2014 Source: Lewiston Tribune, Idaho Aug. 05--GRANGEVILLE -- A wood pellet manufacturing building was destroyed by fire late Monday about a mile north of here along U.S. Highway 95. The main production building owned by Rocky Canyon Pellet Company caught fire about 6 p.m. Monday, said Grangeville Rural Fire Chief Danny Tackett, and burned to the ground within less than three hours. The company makes pellets for wood stoves. "It had a head start on us," Tackett said Monday night. "There was a lot of dust inside the building. It was an old building; it used to be an old horse barn." This is the fourth time in the past eight or nine years, Tackett said, that the fire department has been called to a fire at the location. Adjacent buildings, including a residence, were not harmed, he said, and no one was hurt in the fire. Equipment and stacks of pellets inside the bu...

Three injured in Burns Lake wood pellet mill explosion (updated) By TIFFANY CRAWFORD and ROB SHAW, VANCOUVER SUN October 9, 2014     One man suffered third-degree burns and two other employees were injured in an explosion at a wood pellet plant in Burns Lake on Thursday. Leroy Reitsma, president of Pinnacle Renewable Energy plant said a "fire-related incident" happened at the Burns Lake mill, located on Highway 16 east of Burns Lake, at around 8 a.m. Photograph by: Pinnacle Renewable Energy, ... One man suffered third-degree burns and two other employees were injured in an explosion at a wood pellet plant in Burns Lake on Thursday. Leroy Reitsma, president of the Pinnacle Renewable Energy plant said a “fire-related incident” happened at the Burns Lake mill, located on Highway 16 east of Burns Lake, at about 8 a.m. He said the fire broke out inside of some equipment used to dry wood fibre and it caused an explosion. Pinna...

OSHA Standards, Penalties, Force Illinois Pet Food Manufacturer to Shutter Posted: October 15, 2014, 9:55 a.m. EDT All-Feed Processing and Packaging Inc. can’t afford to pay the penalties OSHA has levied for numerous safety violations and is now closing its doors. In May, the agency hit All-Feed with $254,000 in fines for exposing workers to combustible-dust and respiratory hazards. "Having spent basically every penny that we have to come into compliance, there’s just nothing left for the citations, said Tim Anderson, owner of All-Feed, whose factory is located in Galva and main office in Alpha, Ill. The company will continue production for two or three months to fulfill existing contracts with its customers; however, the company won’t take on any new contracts, Anderson added. All-Feed provides grinding, cleaning and packaging services to the pet-food industry, and it also offers R&D services such as granulation, dehydration, roasting and separation for new pr...

5 tips to extinguish factory fire risks From PropertyCasualty360 5 tips to extinguish factory fire risks Oct 13, 2014 | By Caterina Pontoriero Last week was National Fire Prevention Week, which commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that killed an estimated 300 people, left 100,000 homeless, and destroyed more than 17,000 structures. In honor of Fire Prevention Week, Zurich presents tips to prevent factory fires. A factory fire can spell devastating consequences for a company and its employees. A fire at a factory or manufacturing facility can result in loss of life, injured workers, loss of wages from a factory shutdown, and production downtime. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), property losses at U.S. factories total nearly $1billion each year. Factory fires can be caused by three common factors: hot work , combustible dust , or hydraulic fluid leaks . "Ho...

US Industrial Pellet Association conference wraps with impassioned producer panel From Biomassmagazine.com USIPA conference wraps with impassioned producer panel By Tim Portz | October 03, 2014 From L to R: Seth Ginther, Executive Director of the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association, Morten Neraas, President and CEO Green Circle, and Harold Arnold, President of Fram Renewable Fuels. Tim Portz, BBI International The 2014 Export Pellets Conference concluded with a panel comprised of a selection of the producer members of the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association, moderated by the organization’s executive director, Seth Ginther. The session began with brief updates from each of the producers about their accomplishments and activities from the previous year. Joining the panel for the first time and introducing himself to the conference delegation was E-Pellets Group CEO Doug Albrecht. E-Pellets recently acquired the formally boarded up Louisiana Pacifi...

Dust Explosion Injures 4 Mon, 09/15/2014 - 10:20am FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Flames from welding equipment touched off a grain-dust explosion at a Nestlé Purina plant in Flagstaff Sunday, burning two workers severely and leaving two others with less serious burns, authorities said. The four contractors were welding about 5 p.m. on the fifth floor of the complex's seven-story grain elevator when their torches sparked grain dust and set off the blast, Flagstaff Fire Department Capt. Bill Morse said. One man was severely burned and taken by air ambulance to the Arizona Burn Center at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, and another man with severe burns was transported by ground ambulance to the same center, Morse said. A third man suffered moderate burns and was taken to the Flagstaff Medical Center, while another man with less serious burns was treated and released from the center, Morse said. The explo...

Published on The National Law Review ( http://www.natlawreview.com ) OSHA’s Increased Enforcement of Facilities with Combustible Dusts Hazards By Heidi P. Knight The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) continues to issue citations for alleged violations of various general industry standards (such as general housekeeping and electrical standards) and Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the General Duty Clause (“GDC”), for alleged workplace exposure to fire and/or explosion hazards from “combustible dust,” despite the lack of a clear and comprehensive general industry standard governing employers’ handling of combustible dusts. Definition of “Combustible Dust” Although there is no single, universally accepted definition of “combustible dust,” nor a standard method for sampling dust to determine its combustibility, OSHA has defined “combustible dust” in at least one rulemaking document to inc...

VIDEO: CSB Investigation Warns of Dust Explosion Risk at Recycling Facilities from Waste Management World VIDEO: CSB Investigation Warns of Dust Explosion Risk at Recycling Facilities 18 July 2014 By Ben Messenger Managing Editor The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released its final report, safety recommendations and accompanying safety video into a fatal combustible dust explosion at the AL Solutions metal recycling facility in New Cumberland, West Virginia. As presented to the Board for a vote at a public meeting in Charleston, the report reiterates a recommendation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgate a general industry combustible dust standard, which CSB said it has been calling for since its 2006 study on these preventable accidents. The December 9, 2010 accident at the AL Solutions metal recycling facility, which milled and processed scrap titanium and zirconium metal, killed three employees and in...