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

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: Molten metal ( > 2800F), ejected from an electric arc furnace during a steam explosion. (a)Melt Shop: On or about January 12, 2012 the metal bath level in the #5 electric arc furnace contacted the slag door lentil causing a failure in the lower corner of the lentil which allowed water to contact the metal bath resulting in an explosion exposing employees to molten metal. Employees charge the electric arc furnace with ingots and scrap to form metal alloys. The employer did not ensure that the metal bath level was maintained below the slag door and that the bath level did not contact the steel cased, water cooled slag door lentil, as determined on February 14, 2012. Among other methods,some feasible and acceptable abatement methods to correct this hazard would be to: 1) Develop specific operating procedures for charging each alloy to ensure that bath height does not exceed the bottom of the slag door, 2) Develop charging procedures that take into account the density of each alloy to ensure that bath height does not exceed bottom of the slag door, 3) Install temperature indicator on lentil to warn operators of increasing bath height, 4) Replace water cooled lentil with refractory brick designed to contact slag or bath, and 5) Develop an inspection procedure to ensure that bath height is not increased due to a build up of material on furnace bowl. ABATEMENT CERTIFICATION AND DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED FOR THIS ITEM