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It wasn't the metal that caught fire, it was the hydraulic fluid. You still wouldn't want to use water on that though. Everyone down thread is commenting like
by xxpor 6y ago
It wasn't the metal that caught fire, it was the hydraulic fluid. You still wouldn't want to use water on that though.
Everyone down thread is commenting like the aluminum caught fire. That's not what the article says:
"A piece of machinery containing molten metal caught fire"
It's really hard to get aluminum hot enough to combust if it's in a big blob. Powder on the other hand...
- olivermarks 6y agoHydraulic fluid under pressure is a class B fire than can very quickly escalate. Sand bags aren't going to be doing much in those situations https://youtu.be/aj8-JlRqoWc https://youtu.be/aj8-JlRqoWc If you have molten metals class D powder suppression is needed. I'm amazed the old NUMI plant doesn't have both ready for action.
- xxpor 6y agoAgreed. Class D extinguishers are expensive, but we're talking ~$500 instead of ~$50 for an ABC (obviously depends on size). Both costs are trivial for any manufacturing company, and frankly I'd be shocked if they both weren't required by code. The only thing that I can think of is perhaps no one noticed until it was too late? And then the employees didn't want to touch it until the fire department showed up. If there was a hydraulic leak, they used the sand bags to stop the spread of the fluid, and then used foam to actually put out the fire? No clue.
- userbinator 6y agoIncidentally, this is why a lot of planes use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skydrol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skydrol instead of regular mineral-oil-based hydraulic fluid, despite the former being far more irritating for human handling.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]