In the smelt water explosion even a few liters of water, when mixed with molten smelt can violently turn to steam in few tenths of a second. Char bed and water can coexist as steam blanketing reduces heat transfer. Some trigger event destroys the balance and water is evaporated quickly through direct contact with smelt. This sudden evaporation causes increase of volume and a pressure wave of some 10 000 – 100 000 Pa. The force is usually sufficient to cause all furnace walls to bend out of shape. Safety of equipment and personnel requires an immediate shutdown of the recovery boiler if there is a possibility that water has entered the furnace. All recovery boilers have to be equipped with special automatic shutdown sequence.