Click here for a series of pictures from a German website (at least I believe that’s what these pictures are, considering my German is non-existent.)
From the International Herald Tribune:
Police say a firefighter has been killed and seven rescue workers injured when a malt silo exploded in western Germany.
Police spokesman Klaus Weinmann says firefighters responded early Sunday to a raging fire at a malt factory in Worms, a town southwest of Frankfurt.
While they were fighting the fire the silo exploded. The blast killed a 24-year-old firefighter and injured seven others.
The injured rescue workers were flown by helicopter to nearby hospitals. Three remain in critical condition.
Weinmann says firefighters have contained the blaze. The cause of the fire and explosion at the factory, which produces malt for breweries, is unknown.
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Great post David. We all pray for the families of the victims in this tragic accident.
Here in the USA we all pray for the families and emergency responders that experienced a tragic event quite similar to the Imperial Sugar Refinery dust explosion at Port Wentworth, Georgia in Feb. 2008.
Combustible dust related fires and explosions are a constant threat to fire-fighters responding to such events. In many instances the hazards of seemingly harmless combustible particulate solids that generate combustible dust are unknown.
The explosion severity of many combustible dusts are quite similar to flammable vapors, liquids, and gases. Currently many national manufacturing industries in the USA have not acknowledged this fact.
This catastrophic event in Germany should be a wake up call for stakeholders in the USA in following similar process safety management (PSM) programs that are required by OSHA at petrochemical refineries where a thorough process hazard analysis is conducted, which identifies, evaluates, and institutes control measures in lessening the occurrence and reducing the severity of future events.
John Astad
Director/Research Analyst
Combustible Dust Policy Institute
More pictures: http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/rp/-/id=1682/nid=1682/did=4244826/pv=gallery/8se5yi/index.html
There was a first explosion at 07.00 AM causing the fire fighters to rush in, then at 09.00 AM there was in the midst of firefighting activities a second explosion, fatal for one fire fighter, injuring 7 others.
Sad story…