Maintenance
If a fire is not fuel-related, it’s usually electrically related.
Defeating electrical fires with Fire Forensics FUEL-DRIVEN FIRES ARE ONE THING, ELECTRICAL FIRES ARE ANOTHER. FIRE FORENSICS SENIOR INVESTIGATOR VICKY DAYALAN EXPLAINS HOW MINING COMPANIES CAN SAVE LIVES AND MONEY WITH REGULAR MAINTENANCE.
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he mining industry is inherently driven by combustible stimulants. While electrification is the way of the future, many mining vehicles operate on diesel, while incidental inflammables are omnipresent at a mine site – minerals, expended rubber, tyres, wood, debris and more. Fuel is one source of a mine-related
Preventing electrical fires is vital to improving worker safety and averting serious injury.
fire, but there are also electrical means associated with things like motor discharge, static electricity discharge, earthing faults or the presence of highvoltage power cables. Fire Forensics senior investigator Vicky Dayalan tends to many electrical fires on mine sites – accidents many workers don’t anticipate. “Electrical fires are one of the largest causes of fires on mine sites,” Dayalan says. “If it’s not fuel-related, it’s usually electrically related. It’s usually when the equipment is being used or energised, so you might have an operator in a haul truck and sometimes there’s not even any indication on the dash – there’s no signal given to the operator that something has gone wrong and the only thing that will alert them is flames.” With more than 40 years of experience behind the company, Fire Forensics has forged a reputation for its astute understanding of arguably the world’s most dangerous adversary. It’s the company’s passion and obligation to arrive on site to determine how and why a blaze occurred. Electrical fires often have common
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causes, with parts either being misused or reaching the end of their tether. “Electrical fires are normally due to general wear-and-tear or maintenance. Or it could be because a temporary fix has been used and so they’ve got to substitute parts when they can’t get the authorised part to use,” Dayalan says. “If you’re using something that didn’t actually come with the equipment, technically it’s not meant to be used, and there’s a reason why - because it wasn’t designed to be used for that vehicle or equipment.” Dayalan has seen many miningrelated electrical fires caused by loose cabling. “We’ve investigated quite a few mine site fires, and the electrical ones are usually because wiring or cabling hasn’t been restrained properly, so it’s not actually fitting nicely. If it comes loose and then rubs onto a hose or another cable, over time that friction will obviously wear out the other cable or hose,” she says. “That then can lead to a fluid leak or create a high-resistance pathway that causes localised heating which will then lead to ignition of the hose or the cable
