MADISON, Wis.
-- The Madison Fire Department said the Hazardous Incident Team and the
city health department were called to an apartment complex to
investigate an odor Sunday.
Firefighters
responded to an odor complaint at 1 N. Bedford St. shortly after 11 a.m.
Firefighters investigated the second-floor apartment and spoke to the
occupants, who were complaining of a strong odor of cleaning agents.
Firefighters were unable to detect any odors on the second floor and
returned. Madison police were also called to assist at the
scene.
At noon, Madison police sent the
hazmat team to the apartment complex after finding multiple bottles and
containers of cleaning agents in an apartment on the third floor
directly above the residents who made the complaint.
The hazmat team monitored the air quality and found
all levels normal, according to Madison Fire Department spokeswoman
Bernadette Galvez.
The two occupants of the
second-floor apartment admitted themselves to St. Mary's Hospital. Their
conditions are unknown but are believed to be non-life-threatening,
Galvez said.
The city health department also
went to the scene and cleared everyone to return to the
building.
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Seven firefighters were
hospitalized while responding to a massive fire at an Illinois chemical
plant that sent thick, toxic, black smoke into the sky, according to
news reports. The fire began early Saturday morning at the Euclid
Chemical Company in Sheffield, causing 22 fire departments, seven
ambulance services, and three hazmat teams to respond. Because of the
smoke toxicity, firefighters had to remove themselves from the area and
let the structure burn down.
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PRINCETON, Ill. =97 Some heard explosions and smoke
billowed from a chemical plant fire in central Illinois on Saturday in a
blaze that closed roads and forced residents miles away to stay
inside.
No one was seriously hurt in the fire at the Euclid
Chemical plant that started around dawn Saturday and burned throughout
the day before easing in intensity Saturday evening, witnesses and area
officials said.
...
It wasn't known what caused the fire at the plant,
which makes a variety of materials, including a form of epoxy used in
concrete products, Bertetto said.
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San Diego =97
UPDATE 4:54 p.m. - Toler and Bay Park elementary schools were taken off
lock down status at around 4:30 p.m.
UPDATE 4 p.m. - Mission Bay High
School has been taken off lock down status and all students were sent
home at about 3:25 p.m., said the San Diego Fire Department. Lock downs
for Bay Park and Toler elementary schools are still in effect.
UPDATE 2:40
p.m. - About 140 students have been isolated and are being screened for
mercury contamination at Mission Bay High School after officials found
that they'd entered classrooms with dangerous levels of the
substance.
Three San Diego schools were put on lockdown Friday
after students were exposed to mercury during their morning school bus
ride.
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VALLEJO, Calif. -- Firefighters
responded to a hazardous materials incident in Vallejo early Friday
morning in which an unknown acid was left in a trash can in a
residential area, a fire captain said.
The
incident started around 7:50 a.m. when a garbage man dumped the contents
of a 33-gallon plastic trash can into his truck and visible fumes began
to emanate from the container, Vallejo fire Capt. Marcus Banks
said.
"He said his throat started
hurting," Banks said.
The man was examined by
paramedics at the scene and was able to return to work.
"For the most part he was OK," Banks said.
The trash can was picked up at 175 Rutgers Court, a
vacant, single-family home that was being prepared for renters, Banks
said.
The clear acid was in a 1-gallon
plastic container that had leaked into the trash can, Banks
said.
The container was not labeled
and the acid has yet to be identified, Banks said.
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BOSTON --
Hazardous materials crews were cleaning up and investigating a case of
illegal dumping in Somerville on Friday.
The
Massachusetts Water Resource Authority said about 200 gallons of a
tar-like substance was illegally dumped a parking lot of a MWRA building
on Mystic Avenue, under Interstate 93. About 10 gallons leaked into a
storm drain, the MWRA said.
=93It almost
smells like somebody may have taken stuff from a septic system and just
dumped it here,=94 Somerville Fire Chief Kevin Kelleher told Wicked
Local Somerville.
The substance did not leak from
the MWRA building, officials said. The dumping happened overnight,
according to the MWRA.
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Fire
Department Hazardous Material Response Team, responded to the Department
of Fish and Game, located at 1740 North Market Blvd for several
employees complaining of eye irritation and breathing difficulty after
coming on contact with a package delivered by Federal
Express.
After coming in contact and being in close proximity
with a legal, letter sized package, over six employees of the Department
of Fish and game began complaining of burning eyes and difficulty
breathing. Two employees were transported by Sacramento Fire
Paramedics to local hospitals for their symptoms.
The
department of Fish and Game called it an early day and let all the
employees that were evacuated go home for the day, rather than return to
work. Firefighters ventilated the building to ensure the fumes were no
longer present before leaving the scene.
The substance
later was identified as formaldehyde and traced back to the distribution
center, where the contents of separate package leaked on to other
packages. It is presumed that the second hazmat incident located
at, 3028 Peace Keeper Way was a result of the formaldehyde as well.
The package delivered to this location was delivered by a
different truck; however it was sorted at the same distribution center.
Both law enforcement and fire officials have concluded these
incidents were accidental.
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Tens of thousands of people are
living close to companies which work with dangerous chemicals yet do not
meet fire safety standards, the Telegraaf reports on Friday, quoting
environment ministry figures.
Ministry inspectors carried out
checks on 340 companies which store more than 10 tonnes of dangerous,
inflammable or explosive chemicals on their premises. Of those, 58% did
not meet rules covering the risk of fire, the paper said.
Caretaker
environment minister Tineke Huizinga has written to local authorities
stating her concerns about this =91lack of responsibility=92 and
=91passive approach=92. Fourteen local authorities face legal action for
failing to protect their citizens. These include The Hague, Terneuzen,
Hillegom and Apeldoorn.
An explosion at a fireworks
storage depot in central Enschede in 2000 killed 23 people and destroyed
a 1,500 home residential area. The council had failed to ensure safety
standards were being met.
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HACKETTSTOWN =97 Two Centenary
College students complained of breathing difficulties early this morning
after an unknown individual discharged a dry-chemical fire extinguisher
in the campus's Anderson Hall, according to town police.
At 2:05 a.m., town police and the Hackettstown Fire
Department responded to the college dormitory in reference to an
activated fire alarm. When police arrived, students advised that there
was smoke in the first floor hall. Through investigation it was
determined that unknown individual(s) discharged a dry-chemical fire
extinguisher in the hall.
There were
two students who complained of difficulty breathing due to inhaling the
dry chemical. One student was transported to the Hackettstown Regional
Medical Center and the other refused medical treatment.
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A fire in a laboratory at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill was reported late Sunday night, authorities
said.
The fire, on the fourth floor of Kenan Labs, 125
South Road, was extinguished about 30 minutes after the 10:33 p.m. alarm
first alerted officials to the fire.
Crews from Chapel Hill,
Carrboro, Durham and New Hope fire departments responded to the
fire.
UNC Health and Safety and the professor who
supervises the lab were contacted for information about chemicals that
were inside the room. UNC Fire Marshal Billy Mitchell said the chemicals
were organic and caused no threat to fire crews.
The scene was
turned over to the university for clean up and investigation of the
cause of the fire.
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