Explosion at port Talbot steelworks



I'm hardly surprised these accidents keep happening, coming from a quarrying background I was amazed how poor the safety standards were when I visited a steelworks It was like stepping back into the 70s and injuries were accepted as an occupational hazards.
 
I worked at British Steel as a student in the 1970s and remember talking to a guy who investigated a similar accident in the early 70s, but a bit worse as someone was killed - the train driver I think.
It will be interesting to find out what has gone on at Port Talbot. The reports I saw just said that the explosion was caused by spillage of hot metal. But how has this happened? has the rail car derailed and fallen over, has there been a system failure and the metal been poured out where it shouldn't, has the transfer vessel broken open, has it been caused by someone doing something f***ing stupid, what has the metal spilled on to to cause an explosion? Moving molten iron around is a big filthy scary spectacular business, but it's a daily routine. The 1970s explosion involved the molten iron coming into contact with water, which isn't a good combination. But just a spillage of the hot metal, whilst you wouldn't want to be near it wouldn't necessarily on it's own cause things to go bang.
 
Al said:
I worked at British Steel as a student in the 1970s and remember talking to a guy who investigated a similar accident in the early 70s, but a bit worse as someone was killed - the train driver I think.
It will be interesting to find out what has gone on at Port Talbot. The reports I saw just said that the explosion was caused by spillage of hot metal. But how has this happened? has the rail car derailed and fallen over, has there been a system failure and the metal been poured out where it shouldn't, has the transfer vessel broken open, has it been caused by someone doing something f***ing stupid, what has the metal spilled on to to cause an explosion? Moving molten iron around is a big filthy scary spectacular business, but it's a daily routine. The 1970s explosion involved the molten iron coming into contact with water, which isn't a good combination. But just a spillage of the hot metal, whilst you wouldn't want to be near it wouldn't necessarily on it's own cause things to go bang.
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Just seen some pictures on the news and the train was derailed and on its side. Don’t know if this happened because of the explosion though. Said the explosion was caused by molten iron hitting surface water like.
 
After making lead plunders for fishing as a kid, I don’t think you would need to be that close to something like that to get hurt.
We only had a small amount of water in the mould and when that molten metal hit it......we were finding dolups of lead for ages all over mother Cornishes kitchen. I remember 2 lads getting peppered by the stuff on another occasion and in hindsight I’m glad and surprised they didn’t lose their sight as no gegs were worn either
 

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