Candy always seems so innocent and fun, but the production behind it can create all sorts of hazardous conditions. Workers at a Kentucky candy factory experienced this when sugar for the candy stored inside a silo created a combustible dust explosion. Luckily the 50 employees of the plant were able to escape the building when they heard the initially explosion, and no one was injured in the blast.
The fire and explosion began at the Perfetti Van Melle USA factory in Erlanger, Kentucky early in the morning of Friday December 4, 2015. The factory used to make Mentos and Airheads candy, but currently only produces Airheads. When firefighters arrived at the explosion they saw flames shooting from top of the silo, and it took more than a dozen units from multiple fire departments several hours to bring the fire under control.
The Assistant Fire Chief for the area described the issue with firefighting at this factory when he said, “Anytime you’re dealing with any kind of dust or whatever you have a chance of explosion. That’s always a hazard in that kind of operation. There’s all kinds of dust hazards. This just happens to involve a sugar product.”
This is not the first time this candy factory has experienced a combustible sugar dust explosion. In 2003 a static charge created an explosion in the building when it came in contact with a sugar dust cloud. This explosion blew out the back wall of the building and injured one worker.
Concerned that your factory might be producing dangerous levels of combustible dust?
Contact a Hughes Environmental representative to learn how we can safely remove the hazard of a combustible dust explosion. Our technicians are OSHA trained and use explosion proof vacuum cleaners when handling combustible dusts.
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