Firefighting Precautions at Facilities With Combustible Dust

Every year, a number of emergency responders are injured, and sometimes killed, during emergency operations in facilities where combustible dusts exist. In some cases, responders have inadequate information or training on the explosible characteristics of combustible dust and/or the conditions present in the facility, which has increased the challenge of handling incidents safely and effectively. When there is a delay or setback during an incident, the risk of injury rises for facility workers as well as for emergency responders. Everyone is safer when facility and emergency personnel share information and develop safe procedures to handle incidents involving combustible dusts. Owners, operators, and the community also benefit from reduced property damage when incidents are handled quickly and safely. The primary purpose of this document is to protect emergency responders from harm by giving them a framework for gathering the necessary information prior to an emergency and converting it into safe operating procedures. In this document, emergency responders include firefighters, fire brigade members, hazardous materials teams, and others who might be called upon to respond when a fire or explosion occurs. This document is not intended to provide specific strategies or tactics to be used during emergency responses. It does, however, discuss some tactics that should be considered. The information presented here and collected during pre-incident surveys should be used to train all emergency responders on how to properly handle incidents at facilities with combustible dusts. The information presented in this publication is limited to the fire and explosion hazards of combustible dust. Facilities with combustible dust may have other hazards for emergency responders to consider, such as engulfment, electric shock, unguarded machinery and chemical toxins.