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0 0 INCIDENT REPORT APPLIED AEROSPACE STRUCTURES CORP. 3437 S. AIRPORT WAY STOCKTON, CA 95206 OVEN FIRE NOVEMBER 15, 2007 On November 15, 2007, a small fire inside of an electric oven with a working area of 5'W x 3'H x 3'D, occurred at approximately 10:15 a.m. A high temperature vacuum bagging material and a polyester -type bleeder cloth (about the size of 2 pillows) was being dried at 350 F to remove moisture. The fire was contained within the oven, however, there was an excessive amount of smoke in addition to an odor, and the Stockton Fire Department (SFD) was called and arrived at the facility around 10:30 a.m. The entire facility was evacuated and the SFD opened the oven and extinguished the fire using a dry chemical extinguisher. Public evacuation was not required. Three employees were treated for respiratory problems, with two of them being taken to a local hospital, and one declining further treatment. Once the smoke had cleared, the SFD did a walk- through to ensure that the facility was safe and allowed us to return to the buildings around 11:55 a.m. The following agencies were notified once we were allowed to re-enter the buildings: San Joaquin Office of Emergency Services, State Office of Emergency Services, San Joaquin County Environmental Health Department, and the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District. The area was cleaned up and the waste was placed into a drum for analysis to determine if it is considered a hazardous waste. If it is not hazardous, it will be contained and placed in the trash. If it is hazardous, it will be shipped off site to a licensed TSDF. There wasn't any physical damage to the oven's metal structure, however it must be further inspected to determine if the interior walls and door may have been damaged. At this time, we are still unsure of what started the fire. The bagging material and bleeder cloth should not have ignited at 350 F. They don't melt until temperatures exceed 410 F. The practice of removing moisture from the bleeder cloth has been performed on a cart in larger ovens without any incidents. The oven was checked to see if it may have malfunctioned, but there were no indications of equipment failure. Our best guess is that there may have been something else in the oven, that ignited the bleeder cloth. We will be reviewing this incident at our next Safety Management Advisory Group meeting to discuss oven use issues, evacuation procedures, and facility ventilation issues, so a similar incident doesn't happen again.