By Ben Hall
Investigative Reporter
The Hoeganaes plant in Gallatin has been open thirty years, but this year alone it's had three serious fires.
An industrial video shows what happens inside the plant.
Workers take tons of scrap metal, heat it to extremely hot temperatures and turn it into powder to make metal parts.
The problem is the powder and dust are highly combustible.
Pictures obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates show powder and dust several inches thick in areas throughout the plant.
They were taken by inspectors with the US. Chemical Safety Board a month after a fire that killed two workers earlier this year.
One picture shows several inches of dust on a beam in the building.
A simple spark can ignite the dust causing a flash fire, which burns quickly at extremely hot temperatures.
In January of this year, a flash fire killed two workers.
Another fire two months later, in March, injured one person.
And a serious fire back in 1996 killed a worker.
The state of Tennessee fined the plant more than $42,000 for violations associated with this year's previous fires.
Inspectors found 12 violations and listed many as "serious."
The biggest concern was iron dust up to four inches thick on beams and walkways in the building.
"Combustible dust of that nature when you talk about four inches throughout the plant, is clearly something that's very dangerous," Jeff Hentschel said with Tennessee Department of Labor.
In fact, the state ordered the plant to get the dust cleaned up by June 11, but there is no indication the attempted clean-up led to this fire.
The January fire was especially tragic.
It killed one worker almost immediately.
Another was in the hospital for months with severe burns before dying and leaving behind four young children.
Plant officials said in a statement that it does not appear this fire was related to the fires at the plant earlier this year.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is now reviewing combustible dust at plants across the country to come up with new safety standards.
Email: bhall@newschannel5.com
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