ONE WORKER INJURED IN A HUGE EXPLOSION AND FIRE AT THE INCINERATOR AT UTAH AUTOLIV PLANT
February 5, 2015
PROMONTORY, UTAH:
An explosion at the Autoliv facility in Promontory on
Thursday injured one worker and started a fire in a building at the Box Elder
County plant.
The company’s Promontory facility incinerator is used to
burn highly flammable rejected airbag materials according to an Autoliv spokesman.
The facility is a group of more than 20 buildings that
primarily handles the pyrotechnic material used it the Autoliv’s airbags.
The worker, a 50-year-old man, was flown by helicopter to
McKay-Dee Hospital with injuries to his head, including burns, according to
Chief Deputy Dale Ward of the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office.
The incident occurred about 4:15 p.m. while two workers at
the facility, which makes airbags for cars, were disposing of excess materials,
Ward said in a news release. He said the two were removing a completed batch of
the airbag materials from an incinerator and preparing to put in a second batch
when there was an explosion.
The second worker was not injured.
Agencies responding to the fire included the Box Elder
County Sheriff's Office, the Tremonton Fire Department, Tremonton Ambulance,
the Box Elder Fire Marshal, the Utah Highway Patrol, ATK Fire and Lifeflight.
Fire personnel kept the blaze contained to the building and
were allowing it to burn out because the structure was too unsafe to enter, the
news release said.
Autoliv, which is based in Sweden, also operates plants in
Brigham City, Ogden and Tremonton.
ALWAYS REMEMBER:
WHEN AN EMPLOYEE IS KILLED
OR INJURED BY A PREVENTABLE WORKPLACE HAZARD, THIS IS NO ACCIDENT. IT MEANS THE EMPLOYER FAILED TO PROTECT
WORKERS FROM DANGERS THAT CAN CAUSE INJURY, ILLNESS OR, NEEDLESS DEATH