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SALT LAKE
CITY =97 Residents who were evacuated from their downtown apartment
building while hazardous materials crews investigated an odor on the
fourth floor were allowed to return about 9 p.m. on
Wednesday.
Officials said the source of the odor was identified
as rubbing alcohol that it appears one man was spraying inside his
apartment.
Police received a 911 call about a mysterious odor at
the apartment at 135 S. 300 East. Firefighters could smell the strong
odor when they arrived about 6:30 p.m. and quickly evacuated all 40
units. The occupant of the apartment from where the smell originated was
not at home and couldn't be reached.
Crews discovered 10 bottles
of rubbing alcohol upon entering the apartment, which they removed
before airing out the apartment building. The odor had reached
"potentially dangerous" levels, Salt Lake City Fire Capt. Wade Rockwood
said.
Some residents expressed fear the odor was coming from
a methamphetamine lab, but Salt Lake City Fire spokesman Scott Freitag
said that was unlikely.
"We're not quite sure what exactly he was doing,"
Freitag said. "Police will follow up with the man."
-----------------------
An explosion at an abandoned chemical factory in
Nanjing city in eastern China killed at least six people and injured
more than 300, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The blast
at 10:10 a.m. local time today was sparked by a gas leak from a pipeline
running through the factory, Xinhua said, citing local media that it
didn=92t identify. Buildings and vehicles within a 100-meter (109-yard)
radius were badly damaged and at least 50 people were seriously hurt,
Xinhua reported.
The explosion is the country=92s third major
industrial accident this month, following an acid leak from Zijin Mining
Group Co.=92s copper and gold mines into a river in the eastern province
of Fujian and an oil spill in northeastern China that had shut beaches
and a port. The walls and roof of the factory had collapsed and
firefighters were trying to douse a fire, photographs on Xinhua=92s
website show.
The supply of gas feeding the ruptured pipeline has
been cut, and the fire following the explosion is now under control,
Xinhua said.
The air in the area still smells of gas, the State
Administration of Work Safety said in its report, citing eye- witness
accounts.
As far away as 1 kilometer from the blast site, broken
glass bits were strewn along streets, according to a China National
Radio reporter.
-----------------------
Conservationists are raising concerns after a large amount of
fire retardant foam escaped from a North Vancouver fire station and
entered Mosquito Creek.
An undetermined quantity of the chemical mixture,
commonly used in combination with water for firefighting, spilled out of
a pumper truck at the District of North Vancouver's Firehall No. 3 on
Montroyal Boulevard Monday morning and entered the fish-bearing stream,
coating the surface in foam for a distance of 500 metres or
more.
The liquid was released by a technician who had
noticed an onboard container of concentrated retardant had leaked into
the vehicle's 300-gallon water tank. Concerned the chemical would cause
components to corrode, he started draining the larger container onto the
ground, allowing the mixture to enter a storm drain which he mistakenly
believed was connected to the sewer. The conduit, intended for rain
water, actually drains straight into the creek.
When the
foam on the waterway's surface was brought to his attention, he stopped
the flow, according to the fire department. It's unclear how much had
escaped by that point, however. The truck holds a total of 50 gallons of
the chemical concentrate.
-----------------------
A
2-year-old girl is in serious condition after being burned by an acidic
cleaning fluid, according to D.C. fire officials.
The
incident occurred when the girl and her mother were removing trash from
their Toyota RAV4 Wednesday morning in the 2500 block of 17th Street NW,
according to D.C. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer. The girl
apparently found the hazardous liquid =97 an acid-based cleaner used to
removed corrosion from air conditioning coils -- in the backseat of the
vehicle while her mother was distracted.
The
mother took the girl to a nearby walk-in clinic in the 1600 block of
Columbia Road, and officials there called the fire department, Piringer
said.
The child suffered chemical burns to 25-30 percent of
her body, including her face, chest and shoulders. She is also being
treated for possible ingestion at Children=92s Hospital, Piringer
said.
D.C. fire officials later discovered the vehicle with
fumes emitting from the open container, causing a =93very dangerous=94
situation, Piringer said. The vehicle has been ventilated and the
chemical removed.
=93The teachable moment is how important it is to
supervise children,=94 Piringer said. =93If they=92re close by, they
tend to get anything, so the best advice is to make sure they don=92t
have access to these types of cleaning materials or any kind of
hazardous material.=94
-----------------------
A chemical fire at the J & J Chemical
warehouses north of town has been burning since early Wednesday and does
not seem to be stopping any time soon.
Chuck
Gulley, Athens-Clarke Emergency Management Agency Coordinator, outside
the chemical fire at J&J Chemical warehouse.
Chuck Gulley, Athens-Clarke Emergency Management
Agency Coordinator, has been at the site since the
call.
=93The original call came in
after just after midnight,=94 Gulley said. =93We expect it to continue
burning through the day and into the night.=94
The J & J Chemical Company makes cleaners,
deodorizers, urinal blocks and fragrance enhancers for toilets and
porter johns. The main chemicals in the warehouse were glutaraldehyde,
formaldehyde and the royal blue solution dye which is the coloring for
most of their products.
Emergency
teams from the ACC Hazmat unit and the UGA HART crew have been trying to
contain the leaking chemicals since the beginning of the
fire.
=93Glutaraldehyde is used
for sterilization of indoscopic instruments, thermometers, rubber and
plastical equipment,=94 said chemistry Graduate Coordinator Professor
George Majetich. =93Since they use it for sterilization for medical
instruments, I would have to say that there will be a minimal effect
since it will be oxidized to a compound that=92s found in our own
food.=94
=93Formaldehyde is an
extremely toxic chemical for aquatic life, this includes both plants and
animals,=94 said James Porter, Associate Dean and Josiah Meigs
Distinguished Professor for Ecology. =93A high concentration could be
very toxic to the river.=94
Gulley
specifically wanted the public to know if the Oconee River is blue for a
few days, that it is still safe.
-----------------------
CHANGCHUN/HARBIN, July 29
(Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 containers containing explosive chemicals
were washed into a major river in northeast China's Jilin Province
Wednesday, and 350 of them have been recovered, local authorities said
late Wednesday night.
The accident occurred around 10 a.m. in Yongji County,
in Jilin City, after rain-triggered flood water swept the containers
into the Songhuajiang River, according to the publicity department of
Jilin City Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Some of
the containers, from a local chemical plant, each contained 160 kg of
trimethyl chloro silicane, a colorless flammable liquid with a pungent
odor, said the department.
The chemical would give off hydrochloric acid after
reacting with water,
...
The
1,900-km Songhuajiang River is the largest tributary of the Heilongjiang
River, a border river between China and Russia.
-----------------------
A restaurant worker's face was burnt off in a chemical
explosion on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.
The
27-year-old man, who lives in Cooroy, lost all three layers of skin on
his face in the blast.
It was thought he poured the chemical cleaning agent
sodium hydroxide, or caustic soda, down a drain at Cooroy Chinese about
10am yesterday.
The young man, who speaks very little English,
remained conscious and needed no breathing assistance in the two hours
before he arrived by air at the Royal Brisbane Burns unit at
midday.
The man, who was doing some cleaning at the time, also
suffered third degree or =93full thickness burns=94 to his left and
right arms.
Shocked staff from neighbouring businesses and curious
bystanders watched as a convoy of emergency service vehicles, police and
a suited-up hazardous materials unit converged on the
restaurant.
-----------------------
BATTLE CREEK -- A phalanx of government officials and
private clean-up experts raced Tuesday to protect water supplies in
western Michigan after nearly 20,000 barrels of crude oil from a failed
underground pipeline escaped into the Kalamazoo River.
By late
Monday, the downstream edge of the spill had reached Ft. Custer State
Recreation Area, between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. Crews were using
booms, skimmers and other devices to keep the oil from reaching Morrow
Lake, an impoundment of the river east of Kalamazoo.
Oil-soaked waterfowl and dead fish were observed in tainted
parts of the river. A wildlife rescue team will set up
today.
The 30-inch-wide pipeline is owned by Houston-based
Enbridge Energy Partners, which said it had shut down the pipe, but
didn't know a cause for the spill.
-----------------------
Indianapolis - Firefighters are on the scene of a HazMat
situation at an east side company.
Crews responded to the
incident around 10 p.m. at Univar in the 7400 block of East 30th Street.
The company is a distributor of chemical products to the food and
pharmacy industry.
IFD Capt. Rita Burris says employees were filling a
tank with caustic soda when the tank ruptured. The spill caused some
structural damage inside the building and also damaged a water
pipe.
Crews are taking precautions to prevent water from
mixing with the soda, since interaction between the two could create
more hazardous material. Burris says none of the caustic soda actually
spilled and no one was injured.
Firefighters are staying on
the scene while workers secure the ruptured tank and the
product.
-----------------------
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. --
Hazmat crews responded to an indoor athletic facility after nine people
fell ill while swimming.
Hazmat
crews from Overland Park, Kan., headed to the facility at 11301 West
88th Street just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Several people complained of difficulty breathing and
feeling ill while swimming in the pool at 68's Inside
Sports.
Fire department officials
told KMBC-TV that nine patients were treated for exposure to chlorine
fumes. Two of those treated were transported to a hospital for treatment
of airway irritation and nausea.
All of
the injuries were described as minor.
Hazmat crews remained on the scene to clear out the
chlorine vapors by ventilating the facility. They will also attempt to
determine what caused the chlorine fumes to build up.
-----------------------
BLANDFORD, Mass. (WGGB) -- Motorists heading westbound on the
Massachusetts Turnpike may need to find other food or gasoline plans, as
the service plaza in Blandford is closed due to an acid
spill.
State Police say that around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, a
truck pulled into the service plaza on the westbound side of the Mass.
Turnpike. When it stopped, it was discovered that the truck was
leaking some sort of acid.
Shortly thereafter, the service plaza was evacuated
and closed off. A hazardous materials team has responded and is
still working to clean up the spill.
No injuries have been
reported.
-----------------------
A fire destroyed a commercial building near downtown
Burbank Tuesday evening, but firefighters were able to keep the blaze
from spreading to an adjacent auto repair shop.
No
injuries were reported in the two-alarm fire that, at one point, forced
firefighters to retreat from the roof not long before it
collapsed.
Burbank and Glendale firefighters also fell back from
the building at San Fernando Boulevard and Santa Anita Avenue after they
discovered an unknown flammable liquid =93pouring out the doors,=94 said
Burbank Fire Capt. Ron Bell. Hazmat crews called to the scene said it
could have been scented oils for candles, he added.
Officials
initially described the masonry building as an import-export
business.
No one was inside the building when firefighters
arrived at the scene, Bell said. Firefighters responded to reports of
flames coming from the roof about 6:42 p.m.
The
potential cause of the fire remains under investigation as fire crews
remained on the scene after the blaze was extinguished shortly after 8
p.m.
=93It=92s going to be a total loss, I=92m sure,=94
Bell said.
Though the shop was not built according to current
fire codes, an adjacent auto repair shop was saved in part by a modern
fire protection wall, officials said.
-----------------------
PUNE: A fire which broke out in the laboratory of the
University of Pune's (UoP) department of chemistry on Sunday night was
swiftly brought under control and no casualties were reported.
The fire
started around 11 pm at the Garware Chemical Research Laboratory,
located near the main building. There were several highly inflammable
chemicals in the laboratory. "When we reached the spot, UoP employees
had already started putting the fire out but the entire laboratory was
filled with smoke," fire officer Saibaba Jilhewar of the Aundh fire
station said. "We completely doused the fire by spreading foam."
Jilhewar
added that the UOP employees had immediately removed two hydrogen
cylinders from the laboratory and so averted a major tragedy.
Investigations have revealed that the fire may have started
due to a short circuit from one of the projects in the laboratory.
Fire
brigade personnel have suggested that the UoP authorities install smoke
detectors and sprinklers in the laboratory to avoid mishaps in
future.
-----------------------
SIOUX CITY, Iowa =97 Authorities believe chemicals
used to unclog a toilet at a Sioux City home created a dangerous mixture
that sent three people to the hospital.
Officials
were called to the house Monday morning. Firefighters believe chemicals
used to unclog a toilet in the basement may have mixed with something
caught in the drain, creating hydrogen sulfate gas.
Assistant
Fire Chief Jim Clark says firefighters ventilated the house and used
water to dilute the chemicals.
Officials
say an elderly couple and their granddaughter were taken to a hospital,
and all three were conscious.
Their
names were not immediately released.
