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Author: Veress Árpád · Explosion-protection expertDAILY Ex - 25 SEPTEMBER 2026
14 firefighters injured by exploding chemical drums → a Romanian explosives-plant accident → hydrogen production starts in Antwerp → fresh hydrogen-engine findings → NFPA 660 → one very ordinary modification that can quietly change Ex risk.
⚡ DAILY Ex - 25 SEPTEMBER 2026
Explosion Protection | Operational Ex | Global Watch
Today: 14 firefighters injured by exploding chemical drums → a Romanian explosives-plant accident → hydrogen production starts in Antwerp → fresh hydrogen-engine findings → NFPA 660 → one very ordinary modification that can quietly change Ex risk.
▶️ KEY INCIDENT - THE FIRE WAS ALREADY BURNING. THEN THE DRUMS EXPLODED.
CURRENT | India - 23-24 September
Fourteen firefighters were injured while fighting a major fire at a handicrafts factory in Jodhpur. Officials reported that drums containing flammable chemicals were involved in a series of explosions; six injured firefighters were subsequently transferred to Jaipur for specialist treatment. The police investigation includes how highly flammable chemicals were being stored at the premises.
Why it matters operationally:
Emergency response changes the operating environment.
Heat → damaged containers → loss of containment → incompatible firefighting actions → secondary explosion.
For sites handling flammables, the fire brigade needs more than the address of the fire.
What is stored? Where? How much? What happens when heated? What must responders NOT do?
Emergency information is an explosion-protection barrier too.
▶️ INCIDENT - EXPLOSION DURING VESSEL DRAINING
CURRENT | Romania - 24 September
An employee was injured yesterday at the Sadu Mechanical Plant in Gorj County, in an area manufacturing initiating explosives.
Romanian public radio reports that the worker was handling a hose used to drain wash water from a precipitation vessel when an explosion occurred. Police and the labour inspectorate are investigating the circumstances.
The cause should not be inferred before the investigation is complete.
But the case highlights a useful question:
What hazardous material can remain after the main process is supposedly finished?
Vessel empty ≠ hazard absent.
Residue → wash water → hose → drain → waste system can become its own hazardous process.
▶️ HYDROGEN — COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION STARTS AT ANTWERP-BRUGES
CURRENT TECHNOLOGY | Belgium — 24 September
Commercial green-hydrogen production has started in the NextGen district of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges using two 250-kW AEM electrolysis units. Initial production is reported at about 70 tonnes of hydrogen per year.
Why should Ex professionals watch projects like this?
Hydrogen infrastructure is moving from demonstration towards routine industrial operation.
And that means the discussion moves from: Can we build it?
to How do we inspect it → maintain it → detect leaks → control ventilation → manage modifications → retain competent people for 20 years?
That is where hydrogen becomes Operational Ex.
▶️ RESEARCH / INDUSTRY — HYDROGEN COMBUSTION MOVES CLOSER TO DEPLOYMENT
CURRENT FINDINGS | USA — published 24 September
University of California, Riverside reported yesterday on the North American Hydrogen Engine Conference in Detroit, which brought together around 100 participants from more than 60 organisations.
The programme covered hydrogen engines, infrastructure, emissions, deployment - and importantly safety.
https://www.cert.ucr.edu/news/2026/09/24?utm
Operational Ex point:
Hydrogen combustion technology does not only create an engine-design question.
It creates infrastructure around the engine:
storage → pressure regulation → piping → connections → ventilation → detection → maintenance → refuelling.
The Ex boundary can therefore extend far beyond the machine itself.
▶️ NORTH AMERICA - ONE COMBUSTIBLE-DUST STANDARD
CURRENT INDUSTRY PRACTICE | NFPA 660
A useful 2026 industry review highlights the practical impact of National Fire Protection Association NFPA 660 - Standard for Combustible Dusts and Particulate Solids.
NFPA 660 consolidates the previous commodity-specific dust standards into one framework, while retaining dedicated chapters for agriculture/food, combustible metals, sulfur, wood processing and other combustible particulate solids.
https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/consolidated-combustible-dust-standard/?utm
This matters globally even where NFPA is not the legal basis.
It reinforces a principle shared with IEC/ATEX practice:
Know the material before choosing the protection.
Dust name alone is insufficient.
Particle size → moisture → Kst → Pmax → MIE → MEC → resistivity and actual process conditions matter.
▶️ IEC 60079 - WATCH THE ASSEMBLY, NOT ONLY THE COMPONENTS CURRENT STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT
A particularly important standards development remains IEC 60079-46:2026 - Equipment assemblies, now progressing through the IEC process.
Its scope addresses the design, construction, assembly, testing, inspection, marking, documentation and assessment of equipment assemblies for explosive atmospheres.
This deserves attention because industry frequently builds:
certified motor + certified pump + certified instruments + certified junction boxes + certified glands
and then assumes: = certified system.
That conclusion does not automatically follow.
https://webstore.iec.ch/en/publication/117098?utm
For Operations, the bigger issue comes five years later: Who controls the Ex implications when somebody modifies that package?
▶️ OPERATIONAL Ex USE CASE — THE LARGER EXTRACTION FAN
PRACTICAL USE CASE | Evergreen
Production complains that dust extraction is inadequate. Engineering installs a larger fan. Good improvement? Possibly.
But changing extraction can change: air velocity → capture efficiency → duct transport → pressure balance → dust concentration → releases from neighbouring equipment → collector loading.
So the correct MoC question is “What does the new airflow do to the hazardous conditions throughout the system?”
Local improvement can create a problem somewhere else.
▶️ GOOD ENGINEERING PRACTICE - FOLLOW THE WASTE - reinforced by yesterday's Romanian incident
Pick one hazardous process today.
Instead of following the product forward, follow the waste stream.
Drainage. Flush liquid. Filter residue. Dust collector. Used solvent. Sludge. Vacuum cleaner. Waste container.
We may ask: Where does the explosion hazard actually stop?
We often engineer the production process carefully while treating waste handling as something that happens after the hazardous process.
Sometimes it is simply another part of it.
▶️ TODAY'S Ex QUESTION
Choose one emergency scenario:
fire inside your hazardous-area plant.
Can the responding team immediately determine:
materials present → hazardous inventory → isolation points → Ex zones → pressure systems → incompatible extinguishing media → explosion hazards → safe approach routes?
If that knowledge exists only inside the heads of experienced operators, it is not a robust emergency barrier.
Daily Ex
Explosion protection does not end at the equipment boundary.
It follows the material - through production, maintenance, cleaning, waste handling and even emergency response.