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Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 07:09:26 -0500
Reply-To: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
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From: Ralph Stuart <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: Chemical Safety headlines from Google
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An employee was taken
to the hospital after he accidentally mixed several chemicals
together while trying to unclog a urinal at an interstate truck
stop.
Members of the Loudon County Fire and
Rescue along with the Loudon County Sheriff's Office responded to
the Knox West Travel Center on Watt Road off I-40 Exit 339 just before
11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Officials say the employee mixed together drain
cleaner and bleach causing a toxic gas.
Two other
people were treated, but refused transportation to the
hospital.
-----------------------
SPARTANBURG, S.C. --
Firefighters from several departments spent Sunday evening working to
contain a fire at a plant in Spartanburg County.
Officials said a fire broke out at the Henkel of
America plant on Highway 221 at about 3:42 p.m. Sunday.
Fire departments from Enoree, Cross Anchor,
Hobbysville, Woodruff and Sandy Springs were called to the
scene.
According to Deputy Fire
Chief Tony Barnett, some employees were heating a mix of raw materials
used to make an adhesive when then fire started. It also sparked a small
grass fire when flames filtered outside through an open
vent.
Will Yancey, director of
operations at the plant, told News 4's John Eby that two employees were
taken to an area hospital for treatment. Yancey said both employees were
able to talk and walk when they left.
-----------------------
LONGVIEW,TX (KLTV)- Hazmat crews spent several hours chasing
down and cleaning up a hydraulic spill in Longview on Saturday. Fire
department officials say a truck was leaking the fluid as it made its
way from Loop 281 and Estes Parkway to Lamond Road and Cotton Street.
Spills were found at four spots along the way, with two being cleaned up
by TXDOT contractors, and the other two cleaned up by hazmat and fire
crews. The spill was not a major incident and posed no danger to the
public.
-----------------------
AMESBURY
- Rescue officials closed down South Martin Road Friday night for more
than an hour as they cleaned up a small propane leak at the Eastern
Propane distribution facility off South Hunt Road.
Fire
Chief Jonathan Brickett said only a small amount of the highly flammable
liquid escaped from the end of a distribution pipe but it was enough to
attract the attention of neighbors, one of whom called
authorities.
Propane, like natural gas, is odorless. As a safety
measure, an additive is introduced to give it the familiar smell of
rotten eggs so it can be detected if spilled or
leaking.
The distribution facility, located hundreds of feet
away from South Hunt Road, is where Eastern Propane truck drivers come
to fill their tanks before delivering propane to
customers.
-----------------------
An
18-wheeler carrying carpets was driving west on Interstate 10 when it
hydroplaned on the wet roadway, hit the center wall and jackknifed near
the downtown exit at about 10:45 a.m., according to the Beaumont
Police Department.
Check out more photos from the accident
scene.
The cab came to rest straddling the wall, resting on
its fuel tanks, and the rig slid along the top of the wall, hitting two
light poles, police said.
The fuel tanks ruptured and
the diesel caught fire, police said. The driver of the truck was
not injured.
Debris from the accident, including concrete and at
least one of the light poles, hit a second car driving east on
Interstate 10, police said. The car's passenger was taken to Christus
St. Elizabeth Hospital with minor injuries.
-----------------------
Hazmat and fire crews were called to Main Steel on
Hendricks Road, that's the old Wean United building, on Saturday
morning. Officials say the company was dumping aluminum oxide
into a hopper and when it mixed with the fresh snow, it created a
cloud of gas.
Everyone
within a two-mile radius of the scene was evacuated for several
hours. However, the area is all industrial, so no homes were
affected.
Crews shoveled dirt into the hopper to prevent any
further leaks.
-----------------------
PHOENIX -
Hazmat crews are called out to a Phoenix business after a leak is
detected on Saturday.
Both Phoenix and Tempe firefighters arrived at the
building near 54th Street and Washington after an alarm was set off. It
detected an ammonia leak at the Crescent Crown Distributing
Company.
The
company distributes bottled beer, and the ammonia is used as a cooling
agent for the large coolers they are stored in.
-----------------------
Portland, Conn (WTNH) - Portland fire officials are on
the scene of a 2-Alarm fire that started with reports of a gas leak, and
led to an explosion.
On Saturday afternoon around around 2:45pm, Portland
fire, police, and Hazmat teams were dispatched to a duplex on Summer
Road after receiving reports of a gas leak. Police say the leak was
caused by a backhoe that had struck a propane tank.
As
firefighters were on the scene, an explosion occurred. A witness said
that part of the house blew up in a huge explosion.
-----------------------
NSTITUTE, WV (HNN) - Area fire departments have
found no air quality issues following a two hour power failure at the
Bayer CropScience plant, Institute, WV. After the electricity had been
restored around 12:45 p.m., Kanawha 911 reported that no injuries had
been reported and that no shelter in place recommendations were issued
on or off site.
Power went out across the site about 10:30 a.m.
Saturday Jan. 29.
Residents complained of odors during the outage and
after the restoration of power. However, communication with Bayer
employees indicated no environmental releases have occurred. The Kanawha
911 news release stated that =93all of the production units at the site
were safety shut down and secure.=94
The plant make the dangerous
chemical MIC, which killed thousands in India in the 1980 during an
accident at a then Union Carbide plant.
Since an
explosion two years ago at the Institute plant, the company has agreed
to begin steps to remove the MIC production from the plant, which is
located near West Virginia State University.
-----------------------
GALVESTON
=97 Last week, Mary Frank arrived early as she does every Sunday to open
the Christian Fellowship Ministry Church in Dickinson. When she got
there, she found someone had knocked off the front-door
lock.
Frank, 60, the church
secretary, stepped inside to find a chemical had been poured on the
carpet from the front door to the pulpit, eating all the way through and
into the concrete.
The
chemical was poured over the 20 pews, cutting through wood and
upholstery, and in the kitchen. The church's three guitars, two
keyboards and amplifier were gone.
"I can't
put it into words how I felt that day; it was so emotional," Frank
said.
Dickinson police Detective
Frank Price estimated the damage caused last Sunday at about
$25,000.
The chemical still covers
the church floor, said Assistant Pastor Eddie Glenn, who suspects it is
some sort of acid.
-----------------------
A FIRE has ripped through a warehouse in western
Sydney, causing a massive chemical explosion today.
Three
workers were in the warehouse on Kurrajong Avenue in Mount Druitt when
the fire broke out at about 12.42pm.
The warehouse contained more
than 20,000 litres of solvent and resin. Witnesses said they heard a
large bang and felt of wave of heat when the chemicals
exploded.
-----------------------
Seven
policemen and three citizens were killed and 11others injured when a
building collapsed in Cairo's Hirafiyeen district on
Thursday.
The building collapsed after an explosion tore through
a chemical warehouse located on the first floor. The bodies of three
policemen and three residents--who had been searching for survivors
before the building collapsed on them--were eventually pulled from the
rubble.
The fire spread to three neighboring buildings before
firefighters managed to extinguish it and evacuate the
buildings.
Public prosecutors have since revealed that the
13-story building was built without an official permit. The building=92s
owner reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown upon learning of the
collapse.
-----------------------
Firefighters were investigating a leaking propane tank
at a gas supplier in Stoughton tonight, authorities
said.
Stoughton Fire Lieutenant Jim Curtin said in a phone
interview that a snow plow is believed to have struck the 1,000-gallon
tank at the Airgas East facility on Maple Street at some time today.
Curtin could not say how serious the leak was. He said no injuries have
been reported.
-----------------------
CANON CITY - A driver is dead and a HazMat crew is
working to clean up a spill after a semi-truck and tanker rolled and
caught fire on Friday.
The
Colorado State Patrol says crews were on scene around 11 a.m. after the
tanker went off the right side of eastbound Colorado Highway 50, near
mile post 228 and rolled.
Troopers say the rig, which was hauling fuel, caught
fire, spilling chemicals and fuel.
The fuel spilled away from
the nearby river, but Arkansas Head Waters and a Colorado State Patrol
HazMat team were on scene.
The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, troopers
say.
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