Early in the morning of Monday June 6th a fire began at North Shore Strapping, a plant near Cleveland that manufactures packaging materials. Luckily, the building was closed at the time and there were no injuries or fatalities. It took over 70 firefighters from 11 different departments to manage the blaze, which continued to burn for over 14 hours.
The company’s products included bubble wrap, foam rolls, and cardboard, which made the building and its contents extremely flammable, yet the building did not have fire alarms or sprinkler systems in place. Because of what was burning the fire departments working on the blaze considered the packaging materials fire inextinguishable, and focused on maintaining a defensive position.
The Assistant Fire Chief explained the danger of the situation: “It’s a petroleum based product, plastics, they have a lot of petroleum based chemicals in them so they burn hot and they burn very fast”. Firefighters were unable to enter the building due to the intense heat, and had to work on the fire from the outside.
The paper and plastics inside not only burned intensely hot, but the plastic put off toxic fumes that the firefighters had to deal with. They had to wear air masks and air bottles whenever they were near the blaze to avoid breathing in the toxic air. Hazmat was also on the scene to deal with the fumes.
There were several explosions during the fire, which were thought to be caused by storage tanks full of chemicals exploding. Investigators believe the building will be a complete loss, but will have to wait several days for it to cool down enough to get inside and figure out what caused the packaging materials fire. Since the dollar loss was so high the ATF and State Fire Marshalls will be assisting with finding the cause of the fire.
Companies that create combustible materials need to ensure that steps are taken to remove fire hazards from the workplace. This includes proper housekeeping and cleaning combustible dusts, an issue OSHA has been paying more attention to.Hughes Environmental technicians are trained in the cleaning and remediation of these explosion and fire risks. Contact us now to find out how we can help you avoid a fire in your facility.
Employees worried about their safety or who notice possible violations being committed are able to anonymously contact OSHA to file a complaint or request an inspection by calling 800-321-OSHA (6742) or visiting https://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/complain.html
