California
Chemical Leak Forces Costco
Evacuation
Last Update: 1/13 9:39 am
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It's back to business as usual at a Valley Costco
after a chemical leak forced evacuations.
The
Clovis Fire Department was called out around 3:15 Tuesday afternoon to
the Costco located on Ashlan and Peach Avenues.
Investigators say a copper line fell off a compressor,
causing about 200 pounds of Freon to be released into the air. The
chemical is used to cool refrigerators and freezers.
About 100
people were evacuated.
A couple of employees complained of breathing problems
but they were treated and released.
The warehouse closed for
about three hours.
===
California
Western Career College in
Citrus Heights Evacuated After Chemical Exposure
by
MICHELLE VENTRESS on JANUARY 13, 2010 =B7 0 COMMENTS
in CITRUS HEIGHTS, NEWS
Five people were admitted to the hospital Wednesday
complaining of eye and throat irritation after exposure to a veterinary
anesthetic at Western Career College in Citrus Heights. Veterinary
students and teachers at Western Career College, located at 7301
Greenback Lane, were evacuated from a college building.
A tank of
isoflurane, a halegenated ether used for inhalational anesthesia, burst.
Authorities do not yet know why the tank burst.
The
students were practicing administering anesthesia to a cat at around 10
a.m. Wednesday morning when the incident occurred. Three students and
two teachers experienced eye and throat irritation.
Approximately 200 students and staff taking classes at the
college were evacuated. The evacuation was lifted at 1:00 Wednesday
afternoon and classes are to resume as usual.
===
Toxco
Looks To Prevent Future Plant Explosions
TRAIL,
B.C. (CP) -- A Trail, B.C. battery recycling plant is calling in some
outside help to avoid a repeat of a spectacular explosion and fire in
November.
U.S.-based Toxco, Inc. has retained consultants to
provide advice on better building design, evaluate the process of
battery receiving, storage and treatment, and prepare a risk management
plan.
Plant manager Kathy Bruce is also doing industry
research on other plants' safety processes, while the industry as a
whole reviews the standard rule that water cannot be used to fight
lithium battery fires.
Her work is cut out for her, but Bruce calls that yet
to be done "all good, all really, really good."
She hopes
to have results from the various reports by summer.
A
fire-code engineering firm hired by the plant is currently busy owing to
the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, delaying some of the work. Bruce said
the destroyed building won't be replaced until she receives advice from
all areas. No budget for upgrades has been determined.
"We don't
want this to drag out for months and months," she said.
The
outbuilding that exploded was used to store lithium batteries, prior to
being processed. But unlike other, bunker-like concrete storage
buildings scattered around the outskirts of the plant's property, the
small building that went up in flames on Nov. 7 was metal-framed, with
six-inch, concrete-lined walls on a concrete base.
===
California
Homemade ice bombs chill neighborhood
By Penne Usher, Telegraph
Correspondent
Dan Zahra / Special to the Telegraph
A water bottle looks harmless enough, but when
combined with dry ice, it can become an illegal explosive
device.
By Penne
Usher
Telegraph Correspondent
Combining
two relatively innocuous ingredients, dry ice and water, created not
only an explosion, but quite a stir recently in Cameron
Park.
When the two substances are combined and placed under
pressure they become an illegal and dangerous explosive device that
sounds similar to a .12-gauge shot gun.
El Dorado
County Sheriff deputies were dispatched New Year=92s Day to a home on La
Cienega after reports that shots were fired in the
area.
Around 5:30 p.m. law enforcement officers swarmed he
area near Cameron Park Drive, blocking streets and evacuating homes as
they searched for what they believed to be a gunman.
Deputies
eventually pulled over a vehicle with at least three occupants =97 two
juveniles and an adult.
Andrew Purcell, 43, was arrested on suspicion of child
endangerment. Officials allege that Purcell purchased the dry ice for
the juveniles and allowed them to detonate =93several destructive
devices,=94 according to the El Dorado County Sheriff=92s Office. The
juveniles, whose names are being withheld due to their age, were
detained and eventually turned over to their parents.
It may
sound like an innocent science experiment, but it is
illegal.
=93Fabricating any explosive device, regardless of
what you are using, is against the law,=94 said Sgt. Don Atkinson of the
El Dorado County Sheriff=92s Office. =93A device that can create an
explosion is generally illegal. When uncontrolled and in the wrong hands
it becomes a dangerous weapon.=94
In California, a
=93destructive device=94 includes any sealed device containing dry ice
(CO2) or other chemically reactive substances assembled for the purpose
of causing an explosion by a chemical reaction.
There are
also serious risks involved with making and detonating such a
device.
According to officials, premature explosion can occur
within seconds, injuring the handler. Flying debris from the device can
injure anyone in the area.
