Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: BURNS

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to burn injuries and dust explosions because material conveying equipment was not equipped with approved devices to prevent, mitigate, and/or control the hazards associated with fires and dust explosions: a.) Conveyor Belts: Conveyor belts were not equipped with belt tracking sensors and alarms to prevent misaligned conveyor belts from causing fires. These conveyor belts included but were not limited to: (1) Conveyor belt that feeds wood material to the hammer mill (2) Conveyor belt that removes material from the truck dump area. ABATEMENT NOTE: Among other methods, feasible and acceptable means to correct the conditions include equipping the head and tail sections of the conveyor belts with belt tracking sensors that emit audible and visual alarms. A secondary set of the tracking sensors should be designed to automatically shut-off driving power in the event of greater than 20belt slowdown or misalignment. b.) Conveyor Belts & Air Handling System for Dust and Wood Material: Conveyor belts and the air systems were utilized to convey combustible wood material and wood dust. The Conveyor belts were not equipped with an automatic fire protection system to extinguish potential sparks, embers, and/or fires that may erupt on the belt and/or inside the metal conveyor housing. In addition, the air system/dust collection system and its associated duct work, cyclones, and bag houses were not equipped with an automatic fire protection system to extinguish sparks, embers, and/or fires that may erupt inside the air system and be communicated to downstream process equipment and wood material storage locations. ABATEMENT NOTE: Among other methods, feasible and acceptable means to correct the condition include installing an automatic fire extinguishing system that is equipped with spark and fire detection capabilities. c.) Hammer Mill: The conveying systems that deliver wood material to and/or from the hammer mill were not equipped with approved means to prevent flame propagation through the conveying systems and other pieces of process equipment. ABATEMENT NOTE: Among other methods, feasible and acceptable methods to correct the condition include complying with the applicable requirements noted in NFPA 664 Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Explosions in Wood Processing and Woodworking Facilities. NFPA 664 Section 10-3 states material that presents a dust explosion hazard is delivered to or from pulverizing operations chokes, rotary valves, explosion suppression systems, or other approved means shall be provided to prevent flame propagation through the conveying system.