Dust explosions pose huge industrial safety risk

Brokers can help clients avoid industrial accidents through education

Insurance News

By Gabriel Olano

On the night of February 7, 2008, the Imperial Sugar manufacturing plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia, USA was rocked by several sugar dust explosions. The said explosions were powerful enough to move three-inch thick concrete floors and rip through brick walls.
 
Investigations show that the explosions began at an enclosed steel belt conveyor located above the sugar silos, destroying the sugar packing buildings, silos, palletizer room and heavily damaging parts of the refinery and bulk sugar loading areas. The tragic incident left 14 workers dead and 36 seriously injured with severe burns.
 
According to John Frank, SVP of XL Catlin property risk engineering division, dust explosions are a terrible industrial hazard that can result in numerous casualties and massive damage. However, these explosions are caused by a perfect storm of events. There are five conditions that all need to be satisfied for a dust explosion to happen. These are:
 
  1. Heat
  2. Oxygen
  3. Fuel
  4. Confinement
  5. Dispersion of dust particles
 
The first three are elements of the fire triangle, which are all needed for a fire to continue burning. Confinement usually happens in closed spaces such as silos, equipment, and poorly ventilated buildings. When fighting a fire in an enclosed space, firefighters must avoid dispersing dust particles. Dust may be dispersed during agent application, ventilation, actions that involve heavy pounding such as forcible entry, or creating a water hammer in the sprinkler system.
 
A wide variety of dust particles can lead to an explosion. Combustible materials such as rubber, plastics, paper, sawdust, textile fibers, and powdered chemicals can cause a dust explosion in sufficient quantities. Metal dusts, such as aluminium, can produce extremely powerful explosions. The general rule is that if you can’t see the colour of the surface under the dust layer, or if you can write on it using your finger, then it’s too much dust.
 
Dust explosions are a severe danger to industrial safety, so company safety departments and insurance carriers must exercise proper vigilance to prevent such explosions from occurring through proper engineering, housekeeping, and explosion suppression. However, firefighters must also be aware and avoid triggering a secondary dust explosion when responding to an initial fire.
 

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