Response plan for a significant incident

On Saturday 5 October 2019 at approximately 18:00, a fire initiated on bagasse conveyor 1 at Wilmar Sugar’s Pioneer Mill. The fire quickly progressed throughout a significant section of the bagasse conveyor system. The fire caused extensive damage to the conveyor systems and control, communication and electrical infrastructure. The initial estimate placed the repair time at 21 days; it was accepted that the repair was unplanned and the work scope was not yet developed. It was important that the repair duration be reduced. The fire was investigated by Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) on Sunday and Wilmar initiated an Incident Cause Analysis Method (ICAM) investigation. An internal Wilmar project management team was tasked with planning and execution of the repair without compromising safety and quality and to reduce the duration of the processing interruption. A repair-response plan was developed with repair project and execution teams accelerating repair works. During the interruption, Pioneer region cane was processed at other Wilmar mills. Crushing resumed at the mill on Thursday 17 October, just 12 days after the fire. The impact on the mill crush finish date was limited to 7 days. The repair response plan was widely regarded as a success due to the planning, communication and co-operation between functional teams to safely repair and recommission the mill in the short timeframe. Due to the success of the project the business wanted to understand the process and extract the learnings, so if a similar type event occurred in the future, the steps could be replicated. Key words Bagasse, fire, pioneer, response, conveyor