Julie Watson, plant director, at the factory in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, UK, told FoodProductionDaily fire crews were called to the scene at 10am, on Wednesday, June 4.
Plant ceases production
She said the leak has been brought under control and operations will resume within the next few days after all checks and safety precautions have been completed.
“We can confirm we are currently dealing with an incident on the number 6 Furnace at our plant in Knottingley,” said Watson.
“A small leak occurred during routine maintenance this morning and our local plant fire teams worked closely with the West Yorkshire Fire Service to bring this under control.
Worker was wearing safety footwear
“No-one has been seriously injured, but three employees have been treated on site, two for smoke inhalation and another for heat penetration though safety footwear.”
Watson added Health and Safety is a ‘primary concern’ for the business and it had appropriate training and procedures ‘for dealing with these types of incidents’.
The injury occurred after hot water burst through a faulty electrode on one of the lines. There are six furnaces altogether and operations on the other five continued.
There was an incident at Ardagh Glass plant in Barnsley in September last year when a furnace developed a fault and molten glass spilled out into an electrical switch room, which caught fire.
Glass can only be molded at very high temperatures. It completely melts/liquifies at approximately 1400 °C to 1600 °C depending on the composition of glass, according to the Glass World Book Encyclopedia 2000.