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Molycorp Silmet manager: production continues in other buildings

BC, Tallinn, 11.06.2015.Print version
Molycorp Silmet AS Board Chairman David O'Brock said that the Silmet production facility that burnt on June 9th 2015 is no longer fit for use, but production continues in another building in the company's premises, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

When the fire broke out, 13 people were working in the building. "They all reacted rapidly, in accordance with our emergency trainings and got nicely out of the building," said O'Brock. "This was the most fortunate thing about the accident that none of the employees were injured."

 

According to him, the containers in the building contained substances which are not explosive. "But there was a lot of plastic in the building because the entire production process occurs in plastic pipes, tanks, it polypropylene," said O'Brock, adding that other chemicals used in the process do not burn and when they leaked out of containers, the staff neutralized them.

 

According to the head of the company, the stopped production will be relaunched as soon as possible since in that building, the start of the production process was located and in the following stages, the necessary materials exist for now, so the work of the factory can continue and no one will lose their job because of the fire.

 

Estonian Rescue Centre received a call at 3.45 p.m. on June 9th that some plastic is burning in a five-storey industrial building in Sillamäe and that 135 tons of chemical agents are stored in that building. Rare metals tantalum and niobium ere produced in the building. The fire was liquidated by 4.30 a.m. this morning. While some rescuers suffered some health issues during the rescue work, no one was injured in the accident. Local people were warned of possible effects of toxic smoke and around 60 people did call the poisoning information centre complaining about sore throat or eyes but no one had come to the local emergency room by Wednesday afternoon with the complaints.






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