Aerovox Company; New Bedford, Massachusetts

New Bedford, Massachusetts | 1987-Jun-04

Initial Notification: NOAA/OAD was notified of the incident at 2030 on June 4, 1987, by the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office, Providence, Rhode Island, and requested to provide technical recommendations for extinguishing the fire. NOAA confirmed that the material was, in fact, zinc dust, a residue of Aerovox's zinc plating operation. NOAA concurred with the Chemical Transportation Emergency Center's (CHEMTREC) recommendation that a dry chemical extinguishing agent be used. The New Bedford Fire Department had approximately 200 pounds of a dry chemical fire extinguisher, Metal X, on hand. NOAA/OAD's backup recommendation ( if the dry chemical fire extinguisher did not work) was to flood the hopper bin with very large quantities of water. The New Bedford Fire Department used the Metal X fire extinguisher and large quantities of Fuller's Earth. NOAA now advised that large quantities of water would be an unsuitable backup plan under these conditions, because any quantity of water might no be able to get through the dry chemical and Fuller's earth barrier to adequately cool the burning zinc. Under these conditions, hydrogen gas might be released, ultimately creating an explosive atmosphere. USCG district 1.