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Wentzville, Missouri - A hazmat crisis shuts down a
community pool and forces nearby Warrenton residents to evacuate their
homes. A chemical worker made a dangerous mistake that could have cost
him his life.
A neighbor to the community pool first spotted the
worker struggling to breath. Susie Busekrus was sitting across the
street from where the worker described a burst of chemical smoke. She
said she watched him run out, yell something and cough
continuously.
The third party contractor was topping off liquid
chlorine when he accidentally poured some into a different chemical
bucket. Warrenton Police Chief Greg Houdyshell said emergency responders
faced two immediate problems. They didn't know what the other chemical
was and they didn't know how much was involved.
Chief
Houdyshell said, "The Hazmat teams are doing an excellent job of
monitoring air quality in the surrounding area. Right now we've been
fortunate the winds haven't shifted at all."
Busekrus
called for help when she saw the worker wasn't going to recover on his
own. She said, "And we had the street lined with trucks and ambulances
after that."
Medics worked on the victim right in Susie's front
yard before a medical helicopter flew him to St. John's in Creve Coeur.
The medics didn't see any external burns but they were worried about
possible internal chemical burns.
Reporter Chris Hayes asked
the witness who called for help, "Do you wonder what would've happened
if you weren't here to see it?" Busekrus responded, "That's a good
question. I don't know what he was going to do, because he wasn't doing
anything."
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NEW HAVEN, Conn -- Crews
were called to a three-alarm blaze at a New Haven chemical factory
Thursday morning.
Flames
broke out at the Von Roll Isola Chemical Factory on Chapel Street at
about 8:45 a.m. Fire officials said the blaze was under control in about
30 minutes.
Fire officials said no
chemicals in the building had a reaction to the flames, and that the
fire broke out on the side of the building away from the chemicals.
Nearly three dozen workers were evacuated from the factory because of
the fire.
"Because they used solvents
were very careful about the tactics that we used here ... our lines were
strategically placed between the solvents and fire burning in the front
of the structure," said Assistant New Haven Fire Chief Ralph
Black.
Fire officials said they
believe the blaze may have been sparked by an incinerator near a boiler.
Crews were investigating whether the boiler was
malfunctioning.
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PRYOR, OK
-- An accidental release of anhydrous ammonia late Thursday morning
did not pose any hazards to the public, and residents do not need to
stay inside their homes, authorities state.
Assistant
Pryor Fire Chief Sherman Weaver said that despite some news reports to
the contrary, there was never any danger to the community from the
leak at a chemical plant at the Mid-America Industrial
Park.
The Pryor Fire Department and mutual aid responders
stood by as a precaution after they were called to the site at 10:45
Thursday morning, he said. Plant employees took care of the leak
themselves, and the chemical was contained to the
property.
It did not spread to any surrounding residential
areas, and residents can feel free to leave their homes as usual, he
stressed.
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A
chemical alert disrupted thousands of shoppers after a bleach and water
solution was thrown out of a hotel window on London's Oxford
Street.
Seven people were hit by the liquid, thought to have
been thrown from the Radisson Edwardian Hotel by a
cleaner.
After a woman complained of skin irritation, 10 fire
engines were sent to the scene at 1813 BST and officers in chemical
suits moved in.
Police closed the street and held shoppers inside
department stores.
The road was closed for more than an hour and led to
heavy disruption for traffic in nearby streets.
A police
spokesman said: "It was a combination of bleach and
water.
"It was probably a cleaner who threw it out of the
window."
-----------------------
More than
two months after the April 20 BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of
Mexico, experts are still trying to determine what the health effects
will be on the workers who are struggling to clean up the biggest oil
spill in American history.
There are concerns that some workers could suffer
lung, kidney and liver damage from exposure to the volatile organic
compounds found in the oil.
As of Wednesday, 407 oil exposure complaints had been
reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. In
Louisiana, more than 100 oil spill-related illnesses were reported, 74
of them from workers hired by BP.
=93We've seen a total of 11
patients that have come through our ER since May 26, and most of them
stayed for about two to three days,=94 Taslin Alfonzo, spokeswoman for
West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., told FoxNews.com. =93They all complained of
similar symptoms, which were nausea, dizziness, severe headaches, skin
irritation and shortness of breath, which is an indication =97 our
doctors believe =97 there was some kind of chemical exposure or chemical
irritant that caused them to come in.=94
But
exposure to toxic chemicals isn=92t the only thing causing workers to
seek medical attention. With the heat index in the Gulf hovering around
110 degrees during the steamy summer months, one of the main short-term
health concerns is heat exhaustion.
-----------------------
LUTHER,
Oklahoma - One man is in critical condition and two people have been
arrested after a meth lab explosion in eastern Oklahoma
County.
Emergency crews were called to the home in the 15000
block of N. Pottwatomie Road around 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Firefighters found Nathan L. Knapp, 48, with third degree
burns. He was transported to helicopter to an Oklahoma City hospital
where he remained in critical condition Thursday
afternoon.
Knapp's son, Nathan C. Knapp told firefighters that
his father had been burning trash outside the trailer using gasoline
when the flames got out of control.
Doctor's
at the hospital determined that the burns were chemical burns that were
not caused by gasoline. Doctors contacted Oklahoma County Sheriff's
Office and deputies began investigating the fire. They found signs that
a meth lab had been inside the trailer.
Investigators were told that Knapp Sr. had been cooking
methamphetamine inside a small bathroom when the chemicals exploded. He
then jumped out of a small window to the outside of the trailer and ran
back inside the front door seeking help to put the flames out on his
body, deputies said.
The people inside were able to put the flames out and
before calling 911 Knapp Jr. attempted to destroy all the evidence of
the meth lab by setting fire to the evidence outside of the trailer,
investigators said.
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A deaf
man was killed and at least 200 people evacuated after a gas leak at a
Vereeniging meat market on Thursday, emergency services
said.
They arrived shortly after 10:30 to find people
leaving the building and immediately set up a triage area upwind to
assess people, ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said.
A
hazardous materials unit searched the building and found a man lying
under a table, but he had died.
Colleagues suggested he may
have become confused during the evacuation, or was overcome by the
fumes.
It was believed that construction work to the roof led
to the rupture of an ammonia gas line.
Five
paramedics had also been taken to hospital for treatment as they began
showing symptoms of exposure to the gas.
-----------------------
On June
18, at 5:49 p.m., the Van Buren Fire Department responded to the call of
a possible hazardous material spill when an overturned tank was smoking
near the intersection of Ecorse and Beck Roads.
Fire
Personnel arrived and discovered a 1,000 gallon tank of Anhydrous
Ammonia secured to a trailer was resting on its side and the product was
venting from a broken valve. There was a group of people gathering near
the tank inspecting the scene that had to be evacuated from the
hazardous material using the public address system mounted on the fire
truck.
Anhydrous Ammonia has the potential to cause long-term
breathing problems to those that inhale the gas without protection and
it also has the capability of catching fire under certain conditions so
roads in the immediate area were blocked keeping the area
safe.
-----------------------
HARRISON COUNTY =97 A couple who lives on Wolf River
Road remains in custody today on charges of generating hazardous waste
from the production of meth.
Sheriff
Melvin Brisolara said deputies arrested Brian Kenneth Saucier, 37, and
Stephanie Renee Poulos, 36, after a search of their property on Tuesday.
They live in the 13000 block of Wolf River Road.
Both are held on bonds of $20,000
each.
-----------------------
Brooklyn Park, MD - A pharmaceutical plant that has
been dormant since 1999 agreed to a series of penalties and fines for
abandoning a facility and leaving toxic chemicals out and leaking on
Monday June 21, 2010, as reported by The Baltimore Sun. Consolidated
Pharmaceutical Group pleaded guilty to 50 charges with regards to
abandoning the plant.
Consolidated Pharmaceutical Group and its owner agreed to pay
$250,000 in fines, sell the site where the facility once ran and never
again own a business in Maryland.
According
to an assistant attorney general, when the company ended production in
1999, it =93shut the door and just left,=94 leaving behind over 50,000
gallons of hazardous chemicals. Some of those chemicals posed the
possibility of combining to form cyanide gas.
An investigation by federal, state and local officials
in 2007 found chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, acetone, liquid
nitrogen and solvents that were left behind in drums and other
containers. Fire officials reported the fire alarm did not work and the
sprinkler system was questionable.
Authorities demanded a cleanup. An attorney for Consolidated
Pharmaceutical Group said all areas of the facility were
cleaned.
The owner of the company,
Mehmet Tunc Turgut of Lutherville, agreed to three years=92 probation,
during which the company must try to sell the site. If probationary
terms are not met, the company faces a second $250,000
fine.
While the company is not
operating, it still exists on paper. The site has prior history of
hazardous material issues as well. Before Consolidated Pharmaceutical
took over the facility from Kanasco Ltd. in 1994, Kanasco Ltd. faced
indictments for illegal storage of hazardous materials and a spill. The
indictment was dropped when Consolidated took over.
-----------------------
WAYNESBORO, Pa. =97 The Washington Township Transfer Station
has reopened and resumed its normal business hours, according to a news
release from the township.
The transfer station, 12721 Buchanan Trail East, was
shut down Tuesday afternoon when nine employees were exposed to a
chemical. The employees were treated late at Waynesboro Hospital for
nonlife-threatening injuries and released. Hazmat teams responded to the
incident.
The recycling center portion of the facility, which is
where the incident occurred, will remain closed until further notice,
Washington Township Manager Michael Christopher said in the news release
issued late Wednesday morning.
Normal business hours for
the transfer station are 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
-----------------------
A Bronx senior center worker was killed yesterday
after a barbecue grill he was cleaning exploded with a blast powerful
enough to shatter nearby windows. Joseph McLendon, an employee of the
Comprehensive Care Management Center in Bronxdale, reportedly set off a
chemical explosion after using the wrong kind of cleaning agents on the
propane grill. Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Scanlon told the Daily News, "It
was a huge, huge blast...It's a miracle more people were not
hurt."
McLendon, a father of five,
was pronounced dead after being rushed to Jacobi Medical Center. His
mother said, "It's the most terrible thing to have to bury your child.
I'm devastated. I'm just devastated." But locals wanted to know why such
a seemingly dangerous task was being conducted so close to residential
buildings. Neighbor Denise Rodriguez said, "Why would anyone leave a
propane tank next to a senior center? Why would they do that? It puts
people in danger."
The FDNY recommends that propane grills be cleaned at
least once a year with soapy water, after making sure the gas tank is
turned off. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says 20 injuries
occur every year from gas grill fires and explosions.
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UK: DEESIDE: CHEMICAL LEAK
CAUSES INJURIES TO FOURTEEN PEOPLE WITH THREE BEING TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
|
Three people had to be taken to hospital while 11
received further treatment.
Emergency
services were called to Deeside industrial estate in Flintshire just
before 5am.
Justin Evans, from North
Wales Fire and Rescue, said: "There was an uncontrolled mixture of
chemicals released which produced chlorine gas.
"Three casualties were taken to hospital by ambulance
and there were a further 11 people treated at the
scene.
"Crews from the service are
trained to deal with this type of incident and we have the necessary
resources to ensure that the incident was dealt with
professionally."
The
incident has been brought under control and was not near a residential
area.
Local firms had been advised
to close doors and windows as a precaution.
