• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Learn how hand gel container placement can lead to a flash fire

Accreditation Connection, November 5, 2004

Two amendment provisions specifically deal with the placement of hand gel containers. Both only allow you to place dispensers over carpeted floors in smoke compartments protected by sprinklers and prohibit the installation of dispensers over or directly adjacent to electrical outlets and switches.

The importance of this was evident at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. Someone there installed a gel dispenser directly over a light switch in a radiology file room without the engineering department's knowledge.

Occasionally, gel dispensers leak, which happened in this case. "During use, a little bit of the liquid was deposited on the switch," says Brad Ferguson, RM (AAM), CHSP, safety manager at St. Mary's. "The staff would occasionally wipe off the excess."

But on June 22, no one cleaned up the leaking gel before it seeped onto the light switch. "The staff there told me they saw a bright flash," says Duane Erkman, the hospital's fire marshal. "Fortunately, no one was standing right [in front of the switch] when it flashed, or someone could have been burned."

"It appears the alcohol in the hand rub combined with the electric current to cause a brief flash fire," says Erkman. The burst destroyed the switch, causing it to short out and smoke. Fortunately, the fire went out as quickly as it started, as there were no combustible materials nearby to ignite. A smoldering switch was all that was left from the incident. "We were lucky. It caused no major damage," says Ferguson.

To prevent further fires, St. Mary's took the following actions:

* The engineering department inspected all of the hospital's gel dispensers to make sure their locations were appropriate

* Workers on the environmental services and engineering staffs received refresher training on the fire risks of hand gels

* To raise more awareness about hand gels containers and fires, the employees heard more about the risks in the facility's safety newsletter

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive