The Incident Details
- What: A total failure of the driveshaft connecting the diesel engine to the vertical turbine fire pump. The force of the rotating shaft snapping it caused the protective metal guard to shatter, which is the mangled white-and-black metal seen in the photo.
- When: August 2020
- Where: in a pump room during a standard weekly fire pump test.
- How: The failure was attributed to metal fatigue and cracking. Different levels of oxidation on the break surface indicated that the crack had likely been progressing over time before the final failure.
Key Observations
- Safety Success: The metal guard (the mangled part in the middle) successfully contained the “whipping” action of the broken shaft. The person performing the test was standing only about two feet away when it failed and was not injured because the guard did its job.
- Condition: Post-incident teardown revealed that the pump had not ingested any debris and the bearings were in acceptable condition, further pointing to a failure of the shaft itself rather than a pump seizure.
