« Response
FLATTENING THE LEARNING CURVE
The lines of communication between pellet facility employees, management and local fire and emergency response personnel begin with robust training and planning.
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BY ANNA SIMET
n the aftermath of a 2019 grain silo fire and explosion that resulted in the death of a firefighter and serious injury of an employee, many conclusions were made in a subsequent OSHA investigation report. Discernible from those conclusions was that each violation had a common thread: “inappropriate or incomplete lines of communication.” Unfortunately, inadequate communication extended beyond the worksite, having detrimental effects on the emergency response outcome. Specifically, “definitive roles and duties within the incident command system were not clear or appropriate,” and essential information firefighting person-
nel needed in the event of the emergency was not collected. This included the amount and type of grain in the silo and that it had been smoldering for two days, the assessment of explosion risk and height of bridged product, and the existence and configuration of an inspection port along the side of the silo. This lack of information caused changes to the emergency response and limited strategies to fight the fire, resulting in a catastrophic outcome. Working with a highly combustible material is the nature of wood pellet manufacturing, and while there is no across-the-board instruction manual on how to prepare for and respond to emer-
A core component of Enviva’s incident prevention and response training is conducting proactive practice drills to ensure employees are confident in identifying an emergency, know the appropriate steps to take and follow necessary precautions to keep safe. PHOTO: ENVIVA
10 PELLET MILL MAGAZINE | ISSUE 3 2020
