We have in previous episodes covered off that I did a traineeship with BHP as a metallurgist. It involved moving from department to department over 4 years, doing about a year in each. One of my years was spent at the steel making plant (the BOS) as an 'Observer'. The BOS is a massive open topped pot that holds the iron and a large lance drops down and blows oxygen into it at about twice the speed of sound to burn the carbon out of it and make steel. I bet you needed to know that little snippet. Anyways, when I say massive I mean massive. From the floor where this thing sits up to the top is about 4 stories. Arranged at the top along with the massive gas and dust extraction hood is a sub lance set up. This is a long lance that protrudes down from above into the pit of molten steel below to take samples. Are you still with me? This means that the sub lance is about 3 stories high and is big and heavy and very much a hairy man type piece of machinery.
Before I go on, let me describe briefly the rest of the set up. A control room with massive windows is on the floor level looking out at this massive pot of boiling metal with it splashing and slopping about. Its an impressive sight let me tell you. Overhead cranes with skips with thousands of tons of molten iron on pots, skips with scrap metal, riggers, labourers and foreman all running around making steel. Its a fucking dangerous place too just quietly. The General Foreman is the boss of the shift. He is responsible for the lives of all, probably a billion dollars worth of plant and equipment not to mention the quality of the steel coming out the other side. Its a serious role. In the control room the GF will sit and monitor the activities of lots of areas via a closed circuit video system. Cameras pointing at a few key areas showing a grainy not so clear black and white image often whited out by the superheated metal flaring and the camera's exposure being a little too slow to react. One of these cameras is aimed at the platform perched above the BOS where the sub lance is lowered down into the molten steel.
As the 'Observer', is was my job to run about all the different areas and trouble shoot whatever the grown ups wanted. It was an often an exhausting job but also had its highlights. one of the tasks was to attend the sub lance and determine what was wrong if samples were not being produced correctly. It was super time critical. You have up to 280 tons of molten steel sitting waiting to get the results of an analysis so that it can be moved on to the next process but that can't happen until that sub lance takes a good sample. The sub lance this particular shift way giving us grief so I was dispatched up the several flights of stairs to investigate. The platform had a hole through which the sub lance penetrated below to the steel. There was of course heaps of steel and machinery and other shit around too but this one machine was what I was focused on. As they withdrew the lance then sent it back down again, I noticed it was bending the testing cylinder so as the studious and very careful person I was, I steadied myself with one hand to peer down the hole and see what this obstruction was when the sub lance descended next time. I know you have images of me falling or something but I just told you I was holding onto something. That something was the sub lance guide. A bit of the machine that sits about 6 feet above the platform and when the sub lance drops, it drops first to help guide the thing. I recall thinking as I my gloved hand was clamped and I was wrenched to the ground, " oh this is not good" but then looking up to see the 10 or so tons of equipment above the lance that follows its path down is when I really thought I was cactus. You know in the movies like Conair when the planes stops just before squashing Nicholas Cage or Vertical Limit where the rotor blades skims the chest of the star pinned against the cliff face? well it was exactly like that. The descending gear stopped mere centimetres from my face. I was again, proved to be the lucky one. I cant say the same for the GF though.
Looking at what I was doing on the monitors from the control room, Tony the GF saw me get caught, saw me get taken to ground and then saw me totally obscured by the lance head as it fell. I was dead as far as he knew. It was action stations and get to the corpse as quickly as possible, we might be able to get to him before he gets cooked.
Like I said, it was a 4 story stair journey up to where I was.
I had wrenched my hand from my captor, brushed myself off and was on my way back down to the control room to relate my near miss. My glove was torn and I had grease on my hand. I really did want to wash it off.
I saw Tony get to the top of the stairs and when he saw me walking towards him, his face intially showed relief but then changed to one of torture. He faltered and staggered to the side and slumped against the steel column. Coming up the stairs behind him a few other guys sort of caught him and he did not look well at all. Luckily an ambulance had been called (for me), but as I wasn't using it, was happy for Tony to make full use. Tony was a large man, not really suited to rapid stair ascents and proceeded to have a heart attack in the ambulance on the way to hospital. He survived that attack but as I understand it, did succumb to his weight some years later.
About 25 years later as a commercial manager now sitting in an office in Brisbane, I had cause to see some suppliers and was discussing our relevant experience and what not and I mentioned my metalurgical background with BHP. They too had their own stories to tell and we got onto some of the more famous tales that emanated from the steelworks.
"I heard of this guy that got taken out by the sub lance once" one of them said. "it took off his arm at the shoulder and he had a heart attack!!"
"no" I said. "That's incorrect" holding up my two intact arms.
It's important to know the facts I feel.
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