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Author: Veress Árpád · Explosion-protection expertDAILY Ex - 29 OCTOBER 2026
TODAY'S FOCUS: When routine operations become the initiating event. A new explosion in India, a serious machinery fire in Hungary, developments in European ATEX standards, and research into combustible-dust behaviour lead today's edition. Today's message for Heads of Operations: A machine can operate safely for years—and become dangerous during cleaning, maintenance or restart.
⚡ DAILY Ex | 29 OCTOBER 2026
Explosion Protection | Operational Ex | Global Watch
TODAY'S FOCUS: When routine operations become the initiating event.
A new explosion in India, a serious machinery fire in Hungary, developments in European ATEX standards, and research into combustible-dust behaviour lead today's edition.
Today's message for Heads of Operations: A machine can operate safely for years—and become dangerous during cleaning, maintenance or restart.
🔴 1. INDIA | Explosion damages three fireworks-production rooms
CURRENT INCIDENT - 28 October 2026
An explosion occurred at a licensed fireworks manufacturing facility near Sivakasi.
According to police, a reaction involving an explosive mixture triggered the incident around 12:30 p.m.
The explosion originated in one production room, and flames spread to two neighbouring rooms.
Three rooms were damaged. Fortunately, no injuries were reported because workers had left for a tea break.
Police are investigating.
Why it matters operationally?
Explosive-material processing requires controls extending beyond conventional hazardous-area classification. The incident raises questions about material stability, segregation, ignition prevention and the consequences of propagation between production rooms.
Management action: Verify separation arrangements and the maximum permitted hazardous-material inventory in each processing area.
🔴 2. HUNGARY | Four injured in industrial shredding-machine fire
RECENT INCIDENT - 27 October 2026
A shredding machine caught fire at a waste-processing facility in Kecskemét.
The machine became fully involved in fire.
Four workers required hospital treatment. Two suffered serious burns and were transported by helicopter; two others received treatment for smoke-inhalation symptoms.
The fire was extinguished, and police are investigating the circumstances.
The ignition mechanism has not been established. No explosion has been confirmed. https://www.baon.hu/helyi-kek-hirek/2026/10/tuzeset-kecskemet-hulladekfeldolgozo-uzem-daralogep
Why it matters operationally?
Shredders operate under variable mechanical loads and may encounter unexpected materials.
Friction, overheating, foreign objects and combustible residues are hazards that should be assessed, without assuming any caused this particular incident.
Management action: Review abnormal-temperature detection, machine shutdown, fire detection and safe access during emergency intervention.
https://www.baon.hu/helyi-kozelet/2026/10/kecskemeti-tuzeset-sulyos-egesi-serultek-mentohelikopter
⚖️ 3. EUROPEAN UNION | ATEX harmonisation update for optical radiation
RECENT REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT - 4 September 2026
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1967 amends the EU's harmonised-standards references under ATEX Directive 2014/34/EU.
The decision concerns IEC 60079-28, addressing protection of equipment and transmission systems using optical radiation.
This is relevant to optical communication systems, fibre-optic equipment and other installations where optical energy could become an ignition source.
Why it matters operationally?
Optical equipment is not automatically ignition-free.
Engineering action: Verify the applicable harmonised-standard edition, optical protection concept and installation limitations when specifying or modifying optical systems in hazardous areas.
What does this mean operationally?
For manufacturers: Review designs, conformity assessments, technical documentation and certification plans against the 2026 edition. The transition does not necessarily require every existing product to be redesigned.
For ATEX Notified Bodies: Update applicable standards registers, assessment procedures and certification processes. Determine whether individual certified designs require reassessment.
For operators and end users: Existing installed equipment does not automatically become non-compliant on 4 March 2028. Its suitability must be assessed in relation to its certification, installation, condition, maintenance and any modifications.
For Ex inspection and verification: Check optical radiation equipment against the applicable certification documentation and installation requirements, without assuming the new harmonisation decision retrospectively invalidates installations.
📘 4. IECEx | What does a certified service facility actually certify?
CERTIFICATION PRACTICE
The https://www.iecex.com/certified-service-facility-scheme/overview/ provides independent assessment of service organisations performing activities such as installation, inspection, maintenance and repair.
However, IECEx explicitly distinguishes certification of the service facility from certification of an individual repaired item or installation.
A certified service facility does not automatically make every repaired machine IECEx-certified.
The actual certification scope, personnel competence, technical documentation and repair records remain essential. IECEx
Why it matters operationally?
Procurement must verify the service provider's authorised activities and technical scope—not merely the existence of an IECEx certificate.
Management action: Check whether external repair contracts identify the relevant protection concepts, repair requirements and release documentation.
🔬 5. RESEARCH | Wood-dust explosion behaviour depends on the material
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT - Published 1 October 2026
A review published in Fire examines combustion, flame propagation and suppression mechanisms involving wood dust.
The authors connect particle-scale combustion behaviour with industrial accident pathways and explosion-protection strategies.
The research highlights the importance of material characteristics and operating conditions when assessing wood-processing and biomass-handling installations.
Why it matters operationally?
Wood dust should not be treated as one material with universally applicable explosion characteristics.
Particle size, moisture, composition and processing conditions can influence ignition and explosion behaviour.
Engineering lesson: Verify whether the material data used for explosion-protection design remain representative of the current process.
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/9/10/430
📘 6. USA | Routine valve cleaning contributed to a fatal explosion
HISTORICAL INCIDENT - 11 August 2025; final CSB report 10 August 2026
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board investigated an explosion at the Clairton Coke Works in Pennsylvania.
Two workers died and multiple others were injured.
The investigation established that personnel used pressurised water during maintenance of a coke-oven-gas isolation valve.
Water became trapped inside the valve, generating pressure that resulted in a release of flammable coke-oven gas, which ignited.
The practice had been used previously without a formal written procedure.
The CSB identified weaknesses in procedures, hazard analysis, facility siting and process-safety management.
Why it matters operationally?
A familiar maintenance practice can introduce a failure mechanism that the original operating procedure never considered.
Historical lesson: Repeated successful execution does not establish that an undocumented activity is safe.
https://www.csb.gov/united-states-steel-corporation-clairton-plant-coke-oven-explosion-/
📅 7. UK | Hazards 36 process-safety conference
UPCOMING EVENT - 17–19 November 2026
The Institution of Chemical Engineers will hold Hazards 36 in Manchester.
The program focuses on major-hazard management, practical engineering experience and the effectiveness of process-safety arrangements.
Why it matters operationally?
Explosion protection depends on more than equipment certification. Process design, operating procedures, competence and management systems must work together.
https://www.icheme.org/training-events/hazards-process-safety-conference/
▶️ OPERATIONAL Ex USE CASE
The shredder catches fire. Can production restart?
PRACTICAL | Illustrative scenario
A recycling facility operates an industrial shredder connected to a dust-extraction system.
During production, the shredder develops an abnormal temperature condition.
An operator stops the machine.
Maintenance identifies damaged components and replaces them.
The machine passes a functional test.
Production wants to restart immediately.
But has the underlying hazard been addressed?
A successful functional test does not establish why the temperature increased or whether the event affected other safety-critical equipment.
Before restarting, Engineering must consider the mechanical condition, possible ignition sources, residual combustible material, dust-extraction system, fire-detection arrangements and any explosion-protection measures.
The assessment should also establish whether the incident requires revision of the ignition-hazard assessment or operating procedures.
Required evidence: Incident investigation → corrective actions → mechanical verification → protective-system checks → documented restart authorisation.
Owner: Maintenance Manager, supported by Operations and the Ex Responsible Person.
Measure: 100% of abnormal fire, overheating or ignition events affecting hazardous machinery formally assessed before restart.
▶️ TODAY'S Ex QUESTION
“Which maintenance practices in our plant are accepted because they have always worked, rather than because their hazards have been assessed?”
Consider valve cleaning, equipment opening, temporary electrical connections, vacuum cleaning, component replacement and machinery restart.
The most important question may not be whether the procedure was followed.
It may be whether the procedure was ever technically justified.
⚡ DAILY Ex | CLOSING THOUGHT
Today's incidents and technical developments reinforce an important operational distinction.
Normal operation is only one part of the equipment lifecycle.
Cleaning, inspection, maintenance, repair and restart can introduce different ignition sources, release mechanisms and operating conditions.
A machine may have been correctly certified.
Its installation may have passed inspection.
Its protective systems may have been correctly designed.
But none of these automatically demonstrates that an improvised maintenance activity or abnormal restart is safe.
For Heads of Operations, the responsibility is to ensure that explosion protection remains effective during every activity—not only when production is running normally.
That is Operational Ex.