Hoeganaes explosion - latest
Published: 08 June, 2011
The US Chemical Safety Board has issued a statement regarding its investigation into the the explosion and ensuing fire that occurred at the Hoeganaes facility on Friday, May 27 in Gallatin, Tennessee, which killed two workers and gravely injured a third.
CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso said that the Hoeganaes facility in Gallatin was also the site of a flash fire on January 31st that fatally burned two workers. A similar flash fire occurred on March 29th and caused one injury.
‘To date, CSB and its experts have done extensive testing on the metal dust from the facility. Tests show that powder samples collected from the sites of both the January and March accidents were combustible and could be exploded under test conditions. These test results largely agree with results obtained by Hoeganaes itself prior to the January accident.’
CSB Team Lead Johnnie Banks, the investigator-in-charge for this case said that in three previous trips his team had observed ‘alarming’ quantities of metal dust within close proximity to the incident locations; ‘This was of particular concern as metal dust flash fires present a greater burn injury threat than flammable gas or vapor flash fires.’
As to the latest incident, Banks said that it had involved hydrogen gas that had been leaking into the trench from a large hole in the vent pipe, but there was ‘no doubt that combustible iron dust was also involved in the aftermath of the explosion.’
Moure-Eraso encouraged that Hoeganaes and its corporate parent, GKN, needed to make ‘significant safety improvements to this plant before resuming the manufacturing of iron powder. Without such improvements, there is too great a risk that additional tragic accidents will occur here in the future.’
See below: video of testing on metal dust collected after the January 31, 2011, incident at the Hoeganaes Corporation in Gallatin, TN. The video shows two different tests, the first clip is filmed at normal speed followed by the two tests filmed in slow motion at 1,000 frames a second.
