Report an unintentional adulteration (fire extinguisher burst)

Good morning community,

I need your help!

We had an incident last night at our plant.  We manufacture composite cans and one of the forklift operators hit a fire extinguisher.  The extinguisher was punctured and the contents was released into the plant.  We shut down production immediately, destroyed all exposed product and materials, and allowed the material to settle overnight.  

We contacted the local fire department to get instructions on clean-up.  They said we did the right thing by getting people out of the environment and allowing the material to settle.  Then we could sweep up the mess.

We are in the process this morning of wiping down all machinery with warm soapy water, followed by a wipe down with alcohol.  The floors have been gone over with a sweeper/vac several times and will be washed with our wet/vac sweeper.

This was an unintentional act so I don't know who or if I need to report it to.  It's being documented but is that all we have to do?

Thanks

Shanna

As long as you controlled the situation and have proper disposition of product, cleaned and sanitized effected areas and everything is documented, you should be good to go.

Thank you for your response.  I feel confident we have dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's.  This has been an experience, one I wish not to repeat!  

We had a similar incident where a sprinkler head was hit by a hi-lo mast which set off the sprinkler system in the production room. We followed all the same steps you stated and it was documented in our Crisis Management Reporting Form. The auditor found this acceptable, just make sure you over detail things so there is no questions later on. 

Many thanks.  I included pictures before and after as well.  Not sure if ATP swabbing will be conclusive of chemical removal but we did a few in any case.

Looks like a continuous improvement opportunity. Was this potential incident covered previously? If not, can you move the fire extinguishers to prevent future accidental impact? Can you add clean up to an existing, applicable document (Sanitation / cleaning) in case it happens again or in case of the need to use a fire extinguisher? It sounds like you guys covered it well and took all the necessary steps, now you just need to include them as a part of the plan in case it ever happens again. Once you identify a potential or a hazard, it needs to be addressed with in the system.

DOCUMENTATION is the key, also perhaps have a meeting with heads of departments to discuss what you might do differently...and document that too! 

But it sounds like it went well!

:thumbup: