NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEw ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
are trained ’to bear down on the electrical hazards, and ferret them out as
much as possible by making sure that the maintenance in the plant is sufficient
to overcome the other hazards.
Now, it is interesting to note that many of the cement plants have a
theory; they never service their motors of electrical equipment, feeling that
when it breaks down, they will replace it, because the cost, on the one hand,
as bearing against the cost of maintenance, about equalizes from the standpoint
of simple economics. And s.o they let their motors, burn themselves out..
Occasionally, of course, they do have a fire, but not of any great consequence,
because in those areas., the combustibles are limited.
But, the same fallacy and the same thinking in other industries, are sometimes
catastrophic, and we have been in on them, unfortunately.
In our position as fire prevention engineers., we have not been able to sell
the management on the idea of proper and complete maintenance.
There are a number of fire cases which we find more important, and I
just want to hit on those, because time is. running sh~rt, and then the other
one is this business of cutting and welding.
You probably know, as I do, that the cutting and welding fires present a
great problem. In many other ways, in well-regulated plants, there will creep
in the outside contractor, or the thoughtless, person who occasionally thinks
he is going to do a small job, but without the proper protection, and they
will go up there to do a little bit of welding, or to change something a little bit.
. For example, as you well know, some of the elements, in the starting of
the fire at Levonia, last year, were by the use of this. welding. The plant had
shut down early, and the outside contractor thought that that was, a fine time
to get in there and do a bit of welding. The fact that he was doing welding
over rust preventing compound, at around 100 degrees., didn’t make any difference
to him. And while the employees, well-trained and with proper equipment,
tried to save the plant, it was. impossible, and the results, as you know,
were tremendous, in that fire that ran into many millions of dollars, one of the
largest that we have ever had.
All through our. experience, we have been beset with the problem of cutting
and welding fires. They are, we £eel, one of the biggest hazards in industry
today. It is a fast way of doing work, and a good way of doing it, if you
take the proper safeguards. It is up to the insurance interests., and you men,
as you visit these plants., to stress the fact that certain safeguards, are to be used,
and that there should be some official who is responsible, and who knows what
is going on, who should be there to do the job right, and to see that the proper
protection is taken. It is a thing that can be handled right.
I might say that there are many plants, and I could name several of our
larger Americhn industrial plants, who have practically wiped out cutting
and welding fires, by complete and good controls.
And, speaking about cutting and welding fires, I might say that the more
insidious of these fires, as a class, barring this one that happened at Levonia,
is in warehouses. Uusually, they are _not well attended; the stock is piled
high. It may not be too high, but I mean in relation to the floor, the stock
is piled above a man’s eye vision, and the net result is that sparks will go all
over the area.
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