INCIDENT
Tragic, Predictable Consequences of Running Equipment to Failure
A mixture of steam, flammable gas and high temperatures erupted with explosion and fire with two fatalities.
As industrial chemical processes go, manufacturing calcium carbide is one of the simpler ones. Still, it requires enormous amounts of heat and can produce a dangerous mix of flammable products and toxic gasses. On March 21, 2011, there was an explosion in an electric-arc furnace (EAF) at Carbide Industries, LLC, in Louisville, Kentucky. Two workers were killed and two others injured.