# How long does it take to die on a pool of molten steel?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 27, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751 "2014-06-27T03:00:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/21 "2014-06-27T13:11:21Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#):
>
> More helpfully, I’ve heard that victims of very hot, fast burns often feel cold, since the nerve endings in the skin are so quickly destroyed. But it has the ring of “medical myth” to me, and I can’t find any confirmation in a quick search.
You can feel cold for a fleeting moment in a very hot (over 100 C) sauna when somebody pours water on the stove. I doubt it destroys the nerve endings though.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/22 "2014-06-27T13:23:09Z")
This isn’t first hand, but my ex’s dad is an engineer at a steel plant and saw somebody fall off a catwalk into molten steel once. According to my ex he was essentially vaporized as far as the eye could tell. Didn’t hear that from his dad, though, who’s the one who actually saw it.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/23 "2014-06-27T13:23:41Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Not quite the same thing as the OP but close, but I’ve done a fair amount of control system work in a few different steel mills. In one of them, they have huge ladles which carry a few hundred thousand pounds of molten steel from the blast furnace to other parts of the plant. The folks that worked there told me about one incident where one of the ladle’s mounts broke, causing it to tilt and dump most of its contents.
I’ve long wondered how the hell you clean up a mess like that. A roll of paper towels is just not going to work for that puddle.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/24 "2014-06-27T13:27:01Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> This isn’t first hand, but my ex’s dad is an engineer at a steel plant and saw somebody fall off a catwalk into molten steel once. According to my ex he was essentially vaporized as far as the eye could tell. Didn’t hear that from his dad, though, who’s the one who actually saw it.
I’ve heard this same sort of tale from some people I know who worked in steel mills here in Gary.
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### Author:  [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/25 "2014-06-27T14:00:57Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> I’ve long wondered how the hell you clean up a mess like that. A roll of paper towels is just not going to work for that puddle.
For this specific case - it would be fairly easy. Molten steel from a blast furnace has very high carbon /silicon/phosphorus/sulfur in it. It is very brittle when cooled - especially rapidly like this case. It will probably form chunks when cooled - or bigger chunks can be broken by jackhammers.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/26 "2014-06-27T14:55:10Z")
> [@am77494](#):
>
> For this specific case - it would be fairly easy. Molten steel from a blast furnace has very high carbon /silicon/phosphorus/sulfur in it. It is very brittle when cooled - especially rapidly like this case. It will probably form chunks when cooled - or bigger chunks can be broken by jackhammers.
Yep. from what I heard from my friend, they had spills every year or two. Of course, it was still unrefined, only 75% metal. They would wait for it to cool, jackhammer it up and feed it back into the process - and replace all the exposed cables that melted from the radiation.
I can confirm, I once helped a fellow in the chem lab who was melting things to make crystals for x-ray experiments. A few seconds in front of an open oven at 1000F or more and you start to get the equivalent of a sunburn. No feeling of cold there… at all. My face and arm were tender for a day. I’ve been around places that make molten metal products. Hollywood’s idea of people fighting with flames all around, or light-sabre fights with lava flowing around them, or riding a shield along a flowing channel of molten gold - pure bull-crap.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/27 "2014-06-27T15:15:17Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> make crystals for x-ray experiments. A few seconds in front of an open oven at 1000F or more and you start to get the equivalent of a sunburn. No feeling of cold there… at all. My face and arm were tender for a day. I’ve been around places that make molten metal products.
I recently learned about [glassblower’s cataract.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblower%27s_cataract) I think most people are aware that exposure to UV light can eventually cause cataracts, but I suspect most don’t know that chronic exposure to high levels of IR (i.e. radiated heat) can also cause cataracts. So as hot and injured as your skin was after that day, your eyeballs may have taken a beating too, unless you were smart enough to wear IR-reistant eye protection.
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### Author:  [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/28 "2014-06-27T15:22:26Z")
You live long enough to give one final thumbs up as you sink out of sight. I saw it on tv once.
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/29 "2014-06-27T15:24:56Z")
There’s a famous and hideous H. G. Wells short story dealing with something like this; and a recent British politician’s father died that way.
Oddly, just yesterday I read in **Mao’s Great Famine** , _‘In the Tangshan Iron Plant more than forty powerful blast furnaces were jammed together in a square kilometre, but no protective fences were erected around the cooling basins. Workers slipped and fell in the boiling sludge.’_ ( **Accidents** chapter ).
However, there were many ways to heaven during The Great Leap Forward.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/30 "2014-06-27T16:23:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> I’ve long wondered how the hell you clean up a mess like that. A roll of paper towels is just not going to work for that puddle.
When steel ends up where it shouldn’t, they cut it up into manageable sized pieces (and manageable sized pieces for them are pretty darn large) with blow torches and lift the chunks out with an overhead crane. The chunks are taken back to the BOF (blast oxygen furnace) where they are re-melted to make more steel.
It gets a bit trickier when the steel solidifies inside something like a continuous casting machine (something like this: [http://www.steel.org/en/Making%20Steel/How%20Its%20Made/Processes/Processes%20Info/Continuous%20Casting%20of%20Steel%20-%20Basic%20Principles.aspx](http://www.steel.org/en/Making%20Steel/How%20Its%20Made/Processes/Processes%20Info/Continuous%20Casting%20of%20Steel%20-%20Basic%20Principles.aspx) ) but the same principle is used. They cut it up into chunks that will fit through the machine and lift the chunks out with a crane.
A huge ladle-sized spill can be cut up and taken back to the BOF in a matter of hours. A caster freezing up might take a couple of days to clear.
In the particular case I was talking about though they may have left the steel in place for a while or removed it more slowly just so that a proper forensic examination could be done. I don’t know. I wasn’t there at the time.
The longest cleanups that I have seen involved pigs, which are railroad cars that look kinda like tank cars except they have ceramic lined steel tanks. Molten steel is poured into the tank and a train takes it to its destination (usually one of the big auto plants). If that’s not handled properly then the steel freezes in the tank and the car has to be cut open to remove it.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/31 "2014-06-27T16:56:41Z")
Not quite molten steel but it still does the trick.
> **[Man Burns to Death Rescuing Dog from Hot Springs](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hope-springs-eternal/)**
>
> Burn deaths and injuries result from people trying to rescue dogs from boiling hot springs.
I was one of the Rangers (off duty) that day. Snopes graciously leaves out the details.
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### Author:  [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/32 "2014-06-27T17:00:28Z")
> [@Duckster](#):
>
> Not quite molten steel but it still does the trick.
>
> [Man Burns to Death Rescuing Dog from Hot Springs | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/hotspring.asp)
>
> I was one of the Rangers (off duty) that day. Snopes graciously leaves out the details.
If anyone is interested in the details, read “Death in Yellowstone.”
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/33 "2014-06-27T18:41:55Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> Hollywood’s idea of people fighting with flames all around, or light-sabre fights with lava flowing around them, or riding a shield along a flowing channel of molten gold - pure bull-crap.
But a coat of dragon scales is known to be protective.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/34 "2014-06-27T19:02:56Z")
[Japanese plant worker dies after 13 tonnes of molten metal is spilled over him](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2566987/Japanese-plant-worker-dies-13-tonnes-molten-metal-heated-1-300C-spilled-him.html)
Wouldn’t one tend to die if 13 tonnes of _anything_ fall on one? Even dry sand at room temperature?
Article mentions several other cases, with links for some. One worker fell into a vat of molten zinc, 100% burns, but lived for six hours afterward. How in the world does _that_ happen? Oh, it was only a balmy 450°C. What a lucky dude!
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/35 "2014-06-27T19:14:21Z")
I recall this coming up before, I think it was in a thread about if you could survive falling in lava. It was mentioned that people _have_ fallen in molten steel and survived after being pulled out, although with massive burns and whatever limbs were immersed being essentially destroyed.
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> I recently learned about [glassblower’s cataract.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblower%27s_cataract) I think most people are aware that exposure to UV light can eventually cause cataracts, but I suspect most don’t know that chronic exposure to high levels of IR (i.e. radiated heat) can also cause cataracts. So as hot and injured as your skin was after that day, your eyeballs may have taken a beating too, unless you were smart enough to wear IR-reistant eye protection.
I’ve heard about that. I recall reading that in the old days with no safety regulations or unions there used to be a steel making job where someone judged the temperature of molten steel by eye. Eventually the steel-watchers would always go blind and be fired.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/36 "2014-06-28T00:12:54Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> This isn’t first hand, but my ex’s dad is an engineer at a steel plant and saw somebody fall off a catwalk into molten steel once. According to my ex he was essentially vaporized as far as the eye could tell. Didn’t hear that from his dad, though, who’s the one who actually saw it.
Would that batch of steel then be considered ‘contaminated’ and junked, or would it be on with the show?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/37 "2014-06-28T00:14:01Z")
> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> Would that batch of steel then be considered ‘contaminated’ and junked, or would it be on with the show?
Carbon steel. :eek:
😃
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/38 "2014-06-28T01:10:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Quoth **Machine Elf** :
>
> That is, assuming the fall itself wasn’t fatal. People sometimes die (or are severely injured) by falling into water from great heights. Molten steel, being ~7.5 times as dense, would be expected to induce similar injuries from falls only 13% as high.
I don’t think that’s the right calculation. It’s resiliency that matters, not density. Yeah, density would be one component, since it’d take more force to move a dense medium out of the way, but viscosity and surface tension would also be relevant, plus probably many other factors. Plus, you’ve got the resiliency of the human body itself to consider, which probably dwarfs that due to the impacted surface.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/39 "2014-06-28T01:24:48Z")
> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> Would that batch of steel then be considered ‘contaminated’ and junked, or would it be on with the show?
It depends.
Some steel formulations are more picky than others. It’s possible that for some very precision thing it could screw up the chemistry of the alloy - but in that case when they junked the mess they would just put it into something with more relaxed tolerances. They wouldn’t put the steel into a landfill or anything, it would get recycled.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/40 "2014-06-28T05:15:22Z")
One of my college summer jobs was in a factory that made the bases for bronzed baby shoes. After a promotion or two, I had the job of actually working one of the machines that shot the metal into the mold. On one end of the machine was a tub of molten aluminum; I think the temperature was around 1200 F. I periodically had to dump scraps into it, to be recycled. One time, I got a little reckless and caused a splash that burned my left forearm. I had a scar for many years, but it eventually healed.
While I worked there, a woman got a squirt of aluminum right in the center of her back, and a guy had a shard of the metal in his eye. The place was filled with violations, like a slippery floor. I’m so glad it was only a summer job.
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