January 2010. Texas Tech University. A lab accident. A doctoral student left severely injured, national headlines and a government investigation. October 2011. Two back-to-back lab explosions. No injuries.

The January 2010 accident left a Tech doctoral student minus three fingers and with an injured eye. He suffered burns on his hands and face from the accident in a campus lab.

The incident also brought to Tech’s campus investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board to probe into the accident.

Texas Tech’s laboratory explosion in January 2010 caught the attention of universities across the country.

The University of Texas at Austin’s environmental health and safety director, Peter Schneider, said UT has followed the Tech incident closely.

“I just think that there’s always lessons to be learned when there’s an incident like this. ... If you are committed, the way we are here, to continuously improving your safety program, then you really have to pay close attention to these kind (of incidents),” Schneider said.

One thing UT does to prevent lab accidents is investigate even the small incidents, he said.

“Looking at smaller incidents is important and looking at what we call ‘near-misses,’ where something almost happens, someone was almost hurt,” he said. “These small things and near-misses can be very useful in learning lessons and avoiding big problems.”

The most recent major laboratory incident Schneider could recall at UT was a fire in a fume hood a couple of years ago. No one was hurt, but the laboratory suffered a lot of damage, he said.

OWENS CROSSROADS, AL (WAFF) -
One woman is injured in a chemical fire at a Huntsville fireworks plant.

Emergency and fire crews responded to Luna Tech Inc. on 148 Moon road in Owens Crossroads Saturday morning.

Fire crews were able to put the fire out.

"Upon arrival, one of the buildings where they mix the pyrotechnics caught on fire and had one person that had second degree burns to the face and hands," said Aaron Pearson, Chief Deputy Fire Marshal.

The woman was taken to UAB Burn center by ambulance for treatment.

Wauconda Fire District officials are blaming chemicals on unwashed material for a fire that started in a dryer at an Island Lake bowling alley Saturday.

Battalion Chief Scott Schrayer said firefighters were called to 3-D Bowl and Sideouts Restaurant at 4018 Roberts Road at 1:45 p.m. Saturday for report of a smoke detector being triggered. Firefighters encountered heavy smoke in the rear of the building and a small fire in a standard household-type dryer the bowling alley owners use for drying various materials.

It is believed someone put items in the dryer that had been doused with a cleaning chemical and not properly washed first. Schrayer believes the heat from the dryer ignited the chemicals, which caused the fire.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze and removed the dryer from the building. The dryer was a total loss, Schrayer said.

A fire broke out on Sunday at a Moscow nuclear research center that houses a non-operational 60-year-old atomic reactor, emergency officials reported as Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom said the blaze had not been accompanied by any open flames and posed no threat of a radiation leak.

Spontaneous combustion of an oiled cloth used for home renovations was the cause of a house fire in South Auckland yesterday.

Two fire trucks battled flames at the Papatoetoe home after a neighbour, who had spotted the roof ablaze, phoned 111 about 4am.

Fire safety officer Phil Faidley was yesterday at the Wyllie Rd address determining the cause of the blaze which saw one woman admitted to Middlemore Hospital for smoke inhalation.

He said a discarded cloth that had been used to oil doors spontaneously ignited - something he has seen in six fire investigations in the past two years.

A chemical reaction between natural oils and the fabric resulted in heat, which later ignited the fabric.

"The more the heat builds up the more active the reaction becomes and it gets hotter and hotter and hotter until it gets to the point, probably at about 250C, the rag will ignite."

He said linseed oil had fuelled the Papatoetoe fire.

County Hazmat crews were called Sunday night to Harriet Street in Friendship after a strong smell of bleach triggered residents' fear of a drug lab.

Starting around 9:45 p.m., Police, fire and EMS personnel gathered in the 5500 block of Harriet to check out the reports of a strong chemical odor coming from a downstairs apartment. Though Hazmat crews were standing by, no one entered the building while police interviewed residents.

However, when the residents agreed to let police and a DEA agent check the apartment, they found the smell actually was bleach the residents had been using. No one was sickened or injured, and responders left the scene by 11:40 p.m.

The medical laboratory section of Kaltungo General Hospital in Gombe State was on Thursday razed down by an inferno.
 Speaking at the scene of incident on Friday, Principal Medical Officer(PNO) of the hospital, Dr. Joseph Mathew said the fire started around 9:00pm on Thursday and was immediately reported to the fire service office in Kaltungo. 
“There were series of explosion in the laboratory and unfortunately before we arrived the damage has been done and only few things were recovered,” he lamented.
 He explained that the inferno was caused by a kerosene refrigerator donated to the hospital two years ago by a Non-governmental organization.
 The PNO said the Emir of Kaltungo, Chairman and other important personalities were at the scene trying to put off the inferno.
 Some of the items destroyed are chemistry analyzer, CD4 machine, freezers, desktop computers and blood mixer incubator among other equipments.

Chemical fumes from cleaning a bubbler drain caused the evacuation of Bessie Allen Middle School on Thursday morning.

Superintendent Aaron Sadoff said a drain cleaner was being used to unplug a bubbler near the cafeteria, and during the process, a chemical reaction occurred in the pipe, causing a bad odor to permeate through the school.

The odor did not dissipate, he said. Students from Bessie Allen Middle School were moved to the Horace Mann High School Performing Arts Center while the North Fond du Lac Fire Department used fans to clear out the odor.

A Santa Rosa Avenue auto repair shop may face criminal charges stemming from an incident in which someone reportedly hosed a chemical spill into a neighboring yard, sending the family who lived there to the emergency room, authorities said.

Santa Rosa fire and police officials began investigating the Jan. 17 incident after several inches of contaminated water flooded the neighbor's back yard, exposing an 8-year-old boy to fumes that caused him to vomit 18 times over the next three days, his father said.

The rest of the family suffered nausea, dizziness and light-headedness that sent them to the hospital, as well.

Their back yard is now cratered while crews clear out contaminated soil. The family's above-ground pool has been drained and ruined, as well.

The fire department has cited Accu Tune & Brake for three permit violations, including unauthorized release of hazardous materials, failure to report the release of hazardous materials, and failure to comply with an order to clean it up, Deputy Fire Chief Tony Gossner said.

Though the investigation is ongoing, police expect to forward a case to the District Attorney's Office seeking criminal charges, police Sgt. Mike Lazzarini said.

Police and fire personnel, as well as Safety-Kleen representative Dan Wienholz, who has been contracted by the city to sample and analyze soil from the neighbor's yard, declined to discuss specific findings, pending completion of the investigation. But Bryan Musco, hired to excavate the site, said he understood the main contaminant was gasoline.

Last night local and state authorities found a Sodium Sulfite leak in one of the train cars near Benton and Viking Drive in Bossier City.
Crews were dispatched to the area Wednesday night after receiving a call about the odor from the rail car.
According to Louisiana State Police the leak was only in one car and has been contained.
There was no need for evacuation. Yesterday, a Hazmat team, Benton Firefighters, and Union Pacific Train crews checked for the leak.

CARTERET — Minue Street remains closed from Roosevelt Avenue to Bryla Street as the Middlesex County Hazmat team continues to clean up a mineral-oil spill from the PSE&G power substation on Roosevelt Avenue. Authorities expect the roadway to remain closed until Friday morning, Fire Chief Brian O’Connor said.

O’Connor said the department was called to the scene at 8 a.m. Thursday morning on a report of a transformer failure that caused a leak of the mineral oil. Nearly 14,000 gallons of the oil is estimated to have leaked from the facility.

“This is a nonhazardous oil. It is similar to the mineral oil you purchase in the store,” O’Connor said. “But it leaked onto the roadway. This caused the road to become very slick.”

Police said there was a large stream of black liquid pooled along the curbside of Minue Street extending northbound into the sewer drain just before Roosevelt Avenue. Carteret firefighters attempted to create a barricade with topsoil.

A leaking 1,000-pound propane gas tank at 946 Newgas St. was discovered just after midnight Thursday morning by the Danville Fire Department’s on-duty shift commander, according to a department news release.

There were no injuries and no fire.

But the leaking fuel did cause a large gas cloud that brought out firefighters from the Bridge Street Station and the Hazmat team from the Airport Station.

In all, five people from two nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.

Firefighters used a large water stream to disburse the gas cloud and keep it from igniting while the Hazmat team used two hand-held water streams to approach the tank and stop the leaking gas.

LUCASVILLE --Two people from Salt Creek Road have been arrested as a result of an investigation into a brush fire officials say was caused by the production of methamphetamine.

Crystal R. Rigsby, 29, and Daniel L. Maynard, 36, both of 1909 Salt Creek Road, have been charged with illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, a second-degree felony; illegal assembly of chemicals to manufacture methamphetamine, a third-degree felony; and possession of criminal tools, a fifth-degree felony.

The investigation began about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday when the sheriff's office was called to investigate an arson-related brush fire from earlier in the day at 1909 Salt Creek Road, according to a release from the sheriff.

Upon arrival, deputies reported smelling a strong chemical odor around the home. During a search, deputies allegedly found a clandestine methamphetamine lab and numerous other narcotic related items.

Bio Safe Southern Ohio was called to the scene to neutralize the chemicals that were found.

IRE crews were called to a chemical spill at The Herons leisure centre in Haslemere on Monday morning (January 30).

Reports of the incident came in at 8.40am and firefighter Dom Spooner said: "We were contacted by the Environment Agency after a container of the chemical used for disinfecting the pool leaked overnight."

He said it was a container of sodium hypochlorite, which is used in small concentrations in the swimming pool, adding that some of the liquid had entered the waste drains.

The chemical is used for disinfecting and oxidising water, and is what gives off the smell of chlorine. It is not harmful to people in the low concentrations used in pools. However, in higher doses it can cause red eyes and irritation.

Between 500 and 600 litres of the chemical had spilled out, the fireman added, saying that none had got into rivers or streams through the drains but would have been taken directly to the sewage treatment centre.

HUNDREDS of people had to be evacuated when a major blaze broke out at university chemistry laboratories.

Six fire engines were called to tackle the fire at the York University chemistry block on Alcuin Way, Heslington yesterday afternoon.

The alarm was raised at 12.45pm, when smoke was spotted coming from the roof of the department’s B-block, which houses teaching laboratories.

The fire is believed to have started in a chemical fumes cabinet and then spread through the building, prompting 400 people to be evacuated.

A spokeswoman for the university said the department acted to put special safety procedures for the laboratories in place, as they house a wide range of chemicals. Gas supplies to the rooms were also isolated.

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The university has put in place the emergency plans they have for incidents like this.”

Fire investigator Trevor Lund said there were some ‘quite challenging’ chemicals in the building, but gave credit to staff at the site for isolating the majority of the major fire risks and providing fire crews with instructions about the risks involved.

The fire was brought under control by about 3pm.

MIDDLEBURG, Va. (WUSA) -- Middleburg Academy has been closed for the remainder of the day, according Loudoun County Fire spokesperson Mary Maguire.

According to Loudoun County Fire officials, around 9 a.m. Thursday  there was a chemical spill in one of the classrooms in Middleburg Academy.

The school is located at 35321 Notre Dame Lane in Middleburg, VA.  The school was evacuated.

Maguire said only one adult was exposed to the spill and they were transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Hazmat units are still at the school trying to determine the nature of the product that was spilled and once they do that they will stabilize it.

Cleanup began today on a spill of several hundred gallons of suspected diesel fuel into Battle Creek’s storm sewer system.

Brian Kelly, an on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, estimated that several hundred gallons of the suspect diesel fuel was in the system, which empties into the Kalamazoo River.

Canadian based SWAT Consulting Inc., a subcontractor working on the Enbridge Co. oil pipeline spill, is being hired by the city and will have crews working today.

The spill was discovered Wednesday morning as the petroleum product emptied from a storm sewer pipe into a ditch at the end of Territorial Road near Riverside Drive. The stream created by the discharge empties into the Kalamazoo River.

Update: Wrentham Fire Chief Jay McMorrow said the incident this morning involved an amount of sodium acetate and water spilling into an outlet at one of the school's labs.

According to McMorrow, the outlet began to spark and smoke, prompting the department's response. He said the smoke, more than the chemical, was the issue here, and that there were no injuries.

McMorrow said he believed the lab would be closed until an electrician works on the outlet.

Original: The Wrentham Fire Department responded to the King Philip High School this morning for a reported chemical spill.

According to the Sun Chronicle, firefighters were sent out at 8:20am and remained at the school for half an hour. No injuries were reported.

According to reports, the spilled chemical was sodium acetate.

Botetourt Co., VA - One man is dead, and I-81 was closed for much of the day as crews worked to cleanup a chemical spill following a tractor trailer accident.

State Police say Wayne Kratzer, 51, of Pennsylvania, died in the wreck in, and authorities say he was trapped for more than three hours then died on the way to the hospital.

When rescue crews got on scene, they quickly realized they were dealing with a leak of Thioglycol, a chemical used in the textile industry but considered a poison.

Two barrels ruptured in the wreck, slowing down the rescue. It also forced residents within a half mile to evacuate their homes for about seven hours.

The exposure of two electricians to toxic chemicals at a Civic office building will be investigated by ACT work safety authorities.
Meanwhile, unions described the incident as ''extremely concerning'' and raised fears other older buildings could be contaminated.

The two workers were hospitalised after being sprayed with fluid when a light fitting they were replacing exploded in the computer room on the eighth floor of Canberra House.

The fluid was contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a toxic chemical that can cause skin rashes and, in severe cases, damage to the liver and nervous system.

Both electricians were taken to Canberra Hospital for monitoring.

The Electrical Trade Union told The Canberra Times that PCBs have not been used in light fittings for decades.

The union said it was deeply concerned by yesterday's incident, and the union's NSW-ACT assistant secretary Neville Betts demanded the owner of Canberra House search light fittings throughout the rest of the 11-storey building.

Mr Betts also said a broader investigation into other old buildings around the ACT might be necessary.

The contaminated liquid should have been identified during major campaigns to remove PCBs from buildings in the 1980s and 1990s, he said.

DEWEYVILLE — Damage may top $1 million in a Wednesday afternoon fire that destroyed a 7,500-square-foot recycling facility in this small town east of Tremonton.

The fire was reported at 1:40 p.m. at Hillside Recycling, 12090 N. Highway 38, said Steve Batis, Tremonton fire chief.

The business is owned by Brent Rupp and his brother, Blaine.

Marcy Rupp, Brent’s wife, called the magnitude of the fire “overwhelming” and estimated the total damage will exceed $1 million.

The facility recycles plastics, paper, Styrofoam and other types of plastic foam.

Batis said a welder was working on an addition to the building when a spark from his torch set nearby plastic on fire.

The resulting fire quickly engulfed the building.

SHREWSBURY, Pa. (WHTM) -
A 21-year-old man was injured when vapors in a metal drum exploded at a York County business this morning.

State police said Aaron Baer, of Freeland, Md., was using a cutting torch to remove the lid of the 55-gallon drum in the parking lot of Southern Turf and Tractor, at 250 N. Main Street in Shrewsbury.

Police said Baer had not removed the drum plugs and thought the drum was empty, but unknown vapors in the drum ignited.

Baer was taken to York Hospital with what was described as first-degree burns to his face, chest, and arm, police said.

The lid blew off the drum and struck the building, but the business had no fire damage.

A small fire inside the drum and on the ground around the drum was extinguished by an employee with a fire extinguisher, police said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Two people have been rushed to the hospital following a hazmat incident at a battery plant.

Crews responded to Saft America, Inc., on Waterworks Street on the Westside after a light haze filled the plant Wednesday afternoon. JFRD says the company evacuated everyone from the building.

Hazmat crews are clearing the scene. JFRD says the company has a good ventilation system, but if there are any other issues JFRD says Saft will have to bring in a private contractor.

One victim is recovering at Baptist Medical Center, the other is at St. Vincent's Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

The roadside rest area southwest of Patagonia became a HAZMAT scene on Monday after a tanker truck hauling fuel was seen leaking as it went through town.
At approximately 3 p.m., Patagonia Fire and Rescue were notified that an officer from the Arizona Department of Transportation had stopped the truck within the town limits.
"We went down and took a look," said Fire Captain Ike Isakson. "He had it plugged but it wasn't holding really well so we decided to move the incident out of Patagonia where we thought it would be safer."

After a small explosion injured two students during a routine chemistry lab procedure in September, chemistry officials crafted more stringent lab safety guidelines for this semester.
To prevent accidents and better protect students should they occur, students are now required to wear a lab coat — they no longer have the option of wearing a lab apron, which does not protect their arms — cannot wear shorts and must wear closed shoes. Any student who violates any of these policies will be not be permitted to participate in the lab — which was true of old policies as well — officials said.
Though the explosion was investigated and labeled an accident with no individual at fault, updating safety guidelines can only help prevent future incidents, chemistry department Chairman Michael Doyle said.

Boston, Mass. – Feb. 1, 2012) – Two New England companies that store and distribute hazardous chemicals have agreed in separate settlements to pay a total of more than $179,000 in penalties and to donate about $43,000 worth of equipment and training to local fire departments to settle EPA claims that they violated federal laws regulating companies that handle hazardous chemicals.

Settlement agreements with EPA’s New England office were signed recently by Hubbard-Hall Inc., a chemical storage and distribution company based in Waterbury, Conn., and by Monson Companies, Inc., which is based in Leominster, Mass. and has a warehouse in South Portland, Maine.

The claims and agreements with both companies arose out of a series of inspections that EPA New England has done in the last two years at chemical warehouse and distribution facilities in an effort to address compliance issues.  Since 2009, EPA New England has brought 13 Clean Air Act enforcement actions against companies that warehouse or distribute chemicals, including seven administrative compliance orders and six penalty orders.

HAWKEYE, Iowa - An Fayette County deputy has been taken to a hospital after being exposed to a chemical cloud from a leaking anhydrous ammonia tank.

Emergency crews responded to the scene after 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The tank belongs to the Fredericksburg Farmers CO-OP, 102 North Burrell St., in Hawkeye. Roads leading up to the CO-OP were closed, but are now reopening, according to Fayette County Chief Deputy James Davis.

Fayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Randy Frank said the valve has been shut off and crews are working on cleaning up the chemicals.

The Hawkeye Fire Department was called about 9 a.m. this morning. A hazardous materials crew from Fayette County was on the scene.

SEVENTY-THREE companies dealing with hazardous chemicals were shut down in Shanghai over past year and 15 relocated, city work safety authorities said yesterday.

It was part of a city drive to pull out of this sector due to safety concerns. This is set to continue this year.

"Tight measures will be taken this year," said Vice Mayor Ai Baojun, who supervises work safety in the city, in a meeting yesterday.

Ai said the government will crack down on the sale of banned chemical products this year.

Chemical industry safety frequently made the headlines last year, with a series of fires and explosions in industry zones in Pudong's Gaoqiao area.

No one was injured in the incidents.

Poor equipment and lax management were to blame for two fires in September, the work safety authorities said yesterday.

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Firefighters and federal health officials worked together Wednesday night to make sure a fire at a building containing toxic materials did not spread to nearby Mint Hill homeowners.

As Mint Hill firefighters battled the blaze off Albemarle Road, the EPA was on hand to make sure potentially deadly chemicals did not leak into the county's storm water drains.

The building is a former dry cleaners and is registered as a federal Superfund site, which means it's contaminated with hazardous waste.

The building is currently used as a weekend flea market.

"It's in the ground, so runoff is a concern for us," said Mint Hill Fire Chief Jeremy Russell.

Three members of staff were overcome by fumes when a fridge at a care home leaked ammonia gas.

Firefighters were called to the residential care unit at Clermiston House on Parkgrove Terrace in Edinburgh when the leak was spotted by night staff who noticed an unusual smell in a downstairs office at 4.15am on Thursday.

COLEBROOK - The owner of the Black Mag plant in Colebrook, where two men were killed and one severely injuried in a 2010 explosion, has been indicted on manslaughter and negligent homicide charges.

Craig Sanborn was indicted by the Coos County Grand Jury in connection with the May 14, 2010, explosion that killed Jesse Kennett, 49, and Donald Kendall, 56. A third employee was injured in an explosion at the plant that once produced gunpowder.

The explosion at Millennium Design Muzzleloaders plant in the Colebrook Industrial Park rocked downtown Colebrook. Coos County Attorney Robert McKeel said the indictments handed down late Friday.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials said they were not aware of the plant before the explosion, but afterwards concluded there were huge safety problems and blamed Sanborn, who denied being at fault.

An OSHA investigation determined that the workers had been required to hand feed powder into operating equipment. Following the investigation, OSHA issued the plant 54 workplace safety and health citations with penalties totaling $1.2 million.

LORAIN — The Lorain Fire Department found major diesel contamination at the Old Stove Works building, 817 West 13th, according Assistant Fire Chief Roy Cochran.

About noon yesterday the department was contacted by the Water Department after they noticed an odor. The fire department discovered a diesel spill, that they believe has contaminated the soil.

The Lorain County Emergency Management HazMat team and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency were contacted. The spill is believed to have been caused when an underground pipe rusted and broke, according to Cochran.

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The name of a man killed after a serious carbon monoxide leak at a South Charleston hotel has been released.

Officials from Rosciti Construction tell WSAZ.com worker William Moran of Warwick, R.I., was killed Tuesday from carbon monoxide poisoning at the Holiday Inn Express. In total, five Rosciti workers were affected. Three of the five are being treated in hyperbaric chambers.

Rosciti Officials also tell WSAZ.com the men were working in Charleston on a government project at the National Guard at Yeager Airport.

South Charleston firefighters say the lethal carbon monoxide levels were due to a leaking gas pump that was used to heat the hotel pool. The pump was located on the ground floor, but the pipe went all the way up through the building.

BROADWATER Sugar Mill was evacuated yesterday afternoon after some of the highly-toxic metal mercury was spilt.

At 2.30pm yesterday, NSW Fire and Rescue rushed to the Pacific Hwy mill where a large amount of mercury had leaked out of a container.

A NSW Fire and Rescue spokesman confirmed that HAZMAT personnel had cleaned up 900 ml of mercury that had spilled outside the factory.

It's believed the spill occurred when a container of mercury was dropped, the spokesman said.

Five other "older" containers of mercury were also collected by the HAZMAT crew and placed in a hazardous material bin and handed back to the mill to deal with.

A government guide to cleaning-up mercury declares a spill larger than two tablespoons as "large" because of the increased risk of mercury vapour exposure during the clean up.

WALTERBORO, S.C. (WCIV)-- Walterboro police rounded up two people for shoplifting from a Walmart, but what they found in the suspect's car brought in Hazmat teams.

Around 5 p.m. on Jan 30th, Walterboro police were called to the Walmart on Bells Highway for a report of shoplifting. The Walmart loss prevention officer was struggling with 35-year-old Alvin Walling who was suspected of stealing a bag of candy.

Also in the store was 25-year-old Kelsie Ammons. Both people were suspected of shoplifting clothing in an earlier case. Ammons' purse was searched and wrappers from the stolen candy was found inside.

When police searched the suspect's car to see if any stolen merchandise was inside, they found what they thought was an open container of alcohol. It turned out to be a portable "meth cook" in the process of cooking and highly unstable.

DEA officers and Hazmat crews were notified and Ammons had to go through a decontamination process before being booked at the Colleton County Detention Center.

Vernon Parish, LA (KPLC) - State Police Troop E says there was a multiple vehicle wreck at the intersection of LA 28 and LA 8 Tuesday morning.

Troopers confirm at least one fatality.

This intersection is just east of Leesville in Vernon Parish.

Drivers are being asked to avoid this area until it is cleared by Troopers.

One of the vehicles that crashed was a tanker truck carrying molten sulphur.

A hazmat team is investigating the crash as a precaution.

FORT WAYNE, Ind.— Several bombs and bomb-making materials were found at the Fort Wayne apartment of a man suspected of causing an explosion that blew off one of his hands, police said Tuesday.

Police were not releasing the name of the 43-year-old man because he is a suspect in an investigation, Officer Raquel Foster said. She said police do not yet know why he had the materials in his apartment but that he is not believed to be a terror suspect.

Early indications are that explosives are the man's hobby, Foster said. Police found containers of chemicals and jars and vials of different powders inside the apartment. Foster said authorities were still trying to determine what some of the materials are, but she said authorities do believe they were ingredients to make explosives.

Foster said owning the material is not illegal, but mixing them to make explosives is.

MANITOWOC COUNTY - The investigation continues into a fire that closed off a portion of Highway 151 in rural Manitowoc County Tuesday afternoon.

Fire crews were called to a machine shed fire on 151 and Greendale Road west of Valders.

For more than four hours, smoke billowed out from a patch of trees surrounding property along the highway.

Crews from three fire departments battled the blaze.

Those living nearby called in the fire to authorities.

"I looked up and it was a white smoke cloud and it started to turn black," said Neighbor Bernie Starzewski, who was one of many who called in the fire. "There were some small explosions like pop and punk, and things like that.  We're about a half mile away, so they weren't small."

Officials say those pops were chemical and gasoline tanks exploding inside the building.

EMERGENCY services from across the area are currently dealing with a potentially dangerous chemical spill at West Burton power station, near Gainsborough.

Fire crews from Retford, Misterton and Gainsborough and an Environmental Protection Unit from Stockhill are currently dealing with the spillage of hydrazine at the power station on Gainsborough Road in West Burton.

Hydrazine is a flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour and is also highly toxic and can be dangerously unstable unless handled in solution.

SAN FRANCISCO The owners of a South San Francisco salami plant will pay nearly $700,000 and overhaul its refrigeration system as part of a federal judgment stemming from an ammonia leak that sickened almost four dozen people.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice say Columbus Foods will pay the penalty for the August 2009 gas release without acknowledging wrongdoing. The sausage maker also agreed to spend $6 million upgrading its refrigeration system and improving emergency notification procedures.

Seventeen people were hospitalized and 30 others sought medical attention after built-up pressure caused a pipe to burst and sent 200 pounds of anhydrous ammonia into the air.

NORTON SHORES, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – On Monday dozens of workers had a very close call, escaping an explosion at a Muskegon County foundry.

A furnace exploded around 5:00 pm Monday night at Cannon-Muskegon in Norton Shores. About 40 people were working in the building at the time, ten of them in the furnace area.

Fortunately workers smelled some odd fumes and had begun evacuating before the explosion and no one was hurt.

HYANNIS – Welding work and a gas leak sparked an explosion Friday morning at an automobile recycling busi­ness on Yarmouth Road.

At about 11:30 a.m., an old camper that was being cut apart caught fire as a welder was working on it at Ferrei­ra’s Recycling at 85 Yarmouth Road, said Hyannis Deputy Fire Chief Dean Melanson.

The blaze started with a loud explosion and a large plume of black smoke, he said. Nobody was injured in the fire, he said. Fire officials called the Barn­stable Health Department, which contacted the Depart­ment of Environmental Protec­tion officials about the result­ing gas spill, Melanson said.

Less than 10 gallons of gas leaked onto the prop­erty because of the fire, DEP spokesman Edmund Coletta said.

Crews tearing down a tower at the former BASF Corp. chemical plant in Belvidere ruptured a pipe containing liquid vinyl acetate, prompting a roughly 45-minute cleanup assisted by the Warren County Hazardous Materials Team.

Team leader Tom Nigro confirmed this afternoon that an old pipeline was damaged during demolition and began to leak the chemical into the soil. Nigro said the leak was small and easily contained, but neighbors complained of the odor, which he said resembled that of Super Glue.

Nigro said the hazmat team was needed to bring the leak under immediate control.

EDMONDS, Wash. -- Police say two homemade bombs went off at Edmonds-Woodway High School on Monday.

The bombs, which were placed inside two trash cans in a school cafe, exploded Monday just before 11:45 a.m., according to school principal Michelle Trifunovic.

Fire investigators say the explosives were bottles containing a common household chemical. When the chemical was sealed, the pressure forced the bottles to explode.

In a note to parents, Trifunovic said the small explosions didn't damage the building and nobody was injured.

A staff member at the UW-Madison Chemistry Building was injured Monday morning in an explosion in a laboratory in the building, authorities reported.
The explosion was reported at 9:34 a.m. Monday at the facility at 1101 University Ave.
UW-Madison police Sgt. Aaron Chapin told madison.com the explosion was contained in the laboratory and posed no danger to others in the building or outside.
"The staff member was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries," Chapin said.
Chapin said the building wasn't shut down and no streets were closed.
"The building is operating and the lab where the incident took place is the only facility that's closed so we can investigate," he said.
Chapin didn't know what chemical or chemicals were involved in the mishap.

A 43-year-old man injured in a Sunday night blast was making an explosive mixture, Fort Wayne Police investigators believe.
Through a search warrant, bomb technicians with the department's Hazardous Devices Unit discovered several items inside the 2600 River Cove Trail home that are commonly used to make bombs or explosive devices.
Police said Monday they believe the man contacted a hardened substance with a chisel, causing it to explode. The exact chemical makeup of that substance remains under investigation.

China detained seven people in connection with a toxic metal spill in Guangxi province that contaminated a tributary of the Pearl River and threatened water for 1.5 million people, according to a local official.
All seven were executives at chemical plants, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late yesterday, citing Feng Zhennian, an official with the regional environmental protection department. Feng didn’t identify the executives, Xinhua said.
Chinese workers have dumped chemicals to contain the cadmium spill, detected Jan. 15 upstream of the city of Hechi, which killed fish and prompted panic buying of bottled water. Lead poisoning from battery makers, fluoride leaks from solar panel plants and acid spills from mines have sparked outrage in China, as three decades of growth transformed the nation into the world’s second-biggest economy and its largest polluter.

Heather Armstrong will never forget the graphic chemistry demonstration gone wrong while someone was trying to place a cap on a glass container.
“This person had the stopper in his hand, and ended up impaling the whole glass through his hand,” said Armstrong, a chemical hygiene officer. “I’ll never forget that sight.”
Most accidents that occur in the lab are chemical splashes or small cuts from broken beakers, though occasionally something more serious happens. 
Senior chemistry major Casey Rogers said accidents can happen if lab safety measures aren’t observed.

A broken gas pump causes ten homes to evacuate Saturday night in Owego.

Owego First Assistant Fire Chief Scott gurney says a gas pump malfunctioned at the Citgo gas station on West Main Street around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night, spraying 500 to 700 gallons of gasoline into the street.

Gurney says somewhere around 50 to 100 gallons of gas went into a storm drain. The storm drain goes to the reservoir which leads to the river. A Hazmat team and the Fire Department stopped the gasoline spill before it reached the river.

Hazmat teams found high readings of vapor levels and created a single block radius evacuation.

We know the cause of a fire in Vernon Center that destroyed most of a one story home.

The fire began on the back porch after rags used for staining spontaneously ignited in a trash can, according to Vernon Center Fire Chief Landon Davis.

The fire then moved through the home and into the attic.

Fire Chief says the structure is still standing but the roof is almost completely gone.

A VILLAGE was sealed off earlier today after a chemical suicide bid turned a home into a potential death scene.

Firefighters, paramedics, police and an ambulance hazardous area response team (HART) rushed to Chippinghurst, near Garsington, at about 7am.

The entire village was sealed off and residents were told not to leave their homes after a 23-year-old man filled his house with the killer gas hydrogen sulphide.

He was found gasping for breath by his father who immediately called the police and paramedics.

The incident ended with the suicidal man being taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Fire brigade officials refused to discuss the incident and referred all calls to the police.

A car slammed into a roadside chemical storage tank Saturday afternoon in Smithfield Township.

The crash, which occurred on Seven Bridges Road near the corner of Route 447 around 2 p.m., triggered a big response from emergency service personnel because the chemical in the storage tank, bioxide, is explosive and highly flammable.

However, the chemical is only dangerous in powder form. It was in liquid form in the roadside storage tank, according to Joe Quaresimo, chief of Marshalls Creek Fire Company.

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. -- Dozens of Comcast employees were evacuated Saturday evening after fire officials said the air conditioning system may have leaked Freon.
Cunningham Fire Chief Jerry Rhodes said crews were called to the Comcast facility at 8000 East Iliff Avenue at about 5:17 p.m. He said an employee noticed a “vapor,” triggering the company to activate emergency alarms and evacuate the building.
HAZMAT crews from South Metro Fire Rescue assisted with the incident. Inside the building, they found the possible source of the problem, a leak in a Freon line. The leak was stopped and crews were working to ventilate the building before allowing employees back inside, Rhodes said.

Cleveland Fire Department rushed to the scene of a reported chemical fire at Mueller Co. Saturday afternoon. According to 911 dispatchers, the call came in at 2:38 p.m.

Mueller is located just off Industrial Drive in southwest Cleveland.

Dispatchers were notified the chemical involved was Toluene.

Firefighters were able to vent the plant after opening a roof panel. Thick smoke covered the area after the fire was vented.

Off-duty firefighters were paged to man CFD’s Main Station while ladders and pumpers remained on the scene several hours Saturday. Dispatchers noted the fire was contained within approximately two hours.

TORONTO - Canada has joined Colombia as a leading exporter of synthetic or designer drugs, flooding the global market on an almost unprecedented scale, police say.

The RCMP have seized tonnes of illicit synthetic drugs that include Ecstasy and methamphetamine being shipped abroad after being “cooked” in make-shift labs in apartments, homes and businesses in the GTA.

Police are now seizing more chemicals and synthetic drugs, which they say is favoured by young people, at Canadian border checks rather than the traditional cocaine, heroin or hashish that officers call drugs of “a last generation.”

Most of the Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), meth or ketamine, a hallucinogenic used in “drug cocktails,” are smuggled from Canada by trucks, air cargo, human couriers or courier services to a network of traffickers.

The father of a student who died following an explosion in shop class says he is relieved charges have been laid against the Ottawa Catholic school board.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has laid three charges against the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic District School Board under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in relation to the May 26, 2011incident

Eric Leighton, 18, was attempting to cut open an old oil drum at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School when it exploded. He died of his injuries and four others who were in the classroom were injured.

WHAT was described as a ‘minor’ chemical accident at Grove Academy on Friday morning led to eight pupils and a teacher being taken to Ninewells Hospital.

The incident took place within a science laboratory at the Broughty Ferry secondary school.

The exact circumstances surrounding what occurred are not known but it believed that the chemical bromine was involved.

Authorities in Liuzhou, a city of 3.7 million in Guangxi Province in southern China, are battling to contain the spread of the toxic chemical, after elevated levels of cadmium were detected on Friday in the Liujiang River, the main source of drinking water in Liuzhou. Panicked residents were rushing to stock up on supplies of bottled water, after being told not to drink water from the river.
Sluices were being opened upstream in an effort to dilute the carcinogenic cadmium, which was discharged into the Longjiang River and has spread downstream leaving large numbers of fish dead. Earlier in the week, fire fighters dumped hundreds of tons of dissolved aluminium chloride into the Longjiang River in an effort to neutralise the pollutant, but fears remain that it will continue to flow further downstream and affect other cities.
Local officials, though, are insisting that tap water in Liuzhou is safe.
"The water is still up to national standards and is safe for drinking," said Gan Jinglin, the head of Liuzhou's Environmental Bureau. The chemical spill in Guangxi is the latest in a long line of incidents that have rendered China's rivers and waterways some of the most polluted in the world, despite efforts by Beijing to pressure local authorities to shut down polluting industries.
The deadly discharge occurred almost two weeks ago on January 15th, but was only reported by state media on Thursday. The Guangxi Jinhe Mining Company in Hechi City is being blamed for the release of the cadmium. It is not known for how long the company had been discharging the pollutant into the Longjiang River or in what quantities.

Several people were sent to the hospital after a chemical mixture error in Cape Girardeau.

It happened around 11:15 a.m. at HealthPoint Fitness. The building was evacuated after a mixing error involving laundry chemicals, according to Southeast Health.

According to the fire department, the mixture caused a chemical reaction as one of the chemicals was a mild acid and the other was an oxidizer

According to Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Rick Ennis, crews were dispatched to some sort of chemical mixture sending fumes in the air.

Three employees were taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons, according to Southeast Health. They were being treated for minor chemical irritation and were released later Friday.

Fire department crews say large electric fans were placed in the building to bring fresh air into the structure. While the fans were running personnel continued to monitor the area for toxic levels. 

Crews say hospital personnel then shut off the HVAC system while the incident was ongoing to keep the fumes from traveling throughout the building.  Fire personnel then started monitoring the area for toxicity in the environment.

The fire department used Haz-Mat suits and removed a 15-gallon container of mixed chemicals from the building, according to the fire department. 

RUTLEDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Grainger County Deputies raided a house, finding an active meth lab. When one of the people inside tried to flush the meth lab down the toilet, it exploded.

Deputies went to the house on Highway 92 in Rutledge early Thursday morning. They arrested five people: Krystal Holbert, Johnny Lee, James Keck, Brandy Gibson and Cecille Evans for making meth.


Holbert faces additional charges for aggravated burglary, theft, criminal simulation and tampering with evidence.

Deputies says she is the one who ran through the house and tried to flush the meth lab down the toilet. It exploded and burned her face. Crews took her to the hospital, then to the Grainger County Detention Center.

BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. (AP) -- Authorities say a faulty propane tank likely caused carbon monoxide fumes that sent 13 workers to the hospital in Jackson County.

Emergency responders were called to Chippewa Bi Products near Alma Center Thursday on a report that at least one worker had passed out.

EMTs determined that there were several people who may have been overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in one of the buildings. The company says the faulty tank was used to fuel a forklift.

CSB Safety Recommendations from Ghent, West Virginia Propane Explosion Largely Adopted, Effecting Life-Saving Change   
 
Statement by Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso Marks Five-Year Anniversary of the Convenience Store Tragedy that Claimed Lives of
Two Emergency Responders and Two Propane Technicians
  
Monday, January 30, marks the fifth anniversary of a terrible tragedy that occurred in Ghent, West Virginia – a propane explosion that took the lives of four people and injured six others at a Little General convenience store. The accident occurred as an inexperienced worker attempted to transfer propane from a tank located against an outside wall of the store. 
 
I am pleased to report today satisfactory progress in the adoption of a number of important CSB recommendations made in our final report of September 2008, aimed at improving training requirements for propane technicians, and at improving emergency response actions by on-scene technicians and 911 operators. The recommendations have largely been adopted and will result in lives saved.

The Allegheny River flowed liked wine last week near Sharpsburg when the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority released a harmless chemical that turned the water purple.

As expected, phone calls poured in about the mysterious-colored water, according to Sharpsburg Councilman Tony Sacco.

The local fire department, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Allegheny County Health Department responded.

"I knew it wasn't anything the borough did wrong because we don't have the capacity to dump those kind of chemicals," Sacco said.
The borough has it's own water supply system and treatment plant, drawing from wells near the river.

"Everybody was on the job immediately and found out where the source was," Sacco said.

It was the second day on the job for Rich Aluise, Sharpsburg's new water plant manager.

"I got the call from Councilman Lou DeLuca and all I could do was look upstream to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority," he said.

And that has been an automatic reaction for Aluise, who worked at the Authority for 21 years.

Authority employees were washing out a bin, located about 1 mile north of Sharpsburg near Aspinwall, where Permanganate, a chemical routinely used to remove iron and manganese from drinking water, is stored.

The chemical ended up in the Allegheny because recent rain caused the sewer system to overflow into the river, said Stanley States, PWSA's director of water quality and production.

WEST CHESTER TWP. — An unknown substance found in a dumpster today has been identified as cleaning solution by the West Chester Twp. hazardous materials team.
Around 2:10 p.m., West Chester Twp. fire officials responded to 4758 Interstate Drive after an employee reported seeing someone dump a 55-gallon drum of liquid into a dumpster, according to Barb Wilson, township spokeswoman.
Wilson said as of 2:30 p.m. units have already cleared the scene after the fluid ended up being cleaning solution. The person that dumped the fluid was found and will properly dispose of the liquid.

TALLAHASSEE—Governor Rick Scott has proclaimed Jan. 22 – 28, 2012 as “Hazardous Materials Awareness Week” in Florida. Joining Governor Scott in commemorating the educational week is the Florida Division of Emergency Management, in partnership with the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) for Hazardous Materials and the Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs) across the state. This year’s focus is on Mercury.

“Florida’s economy and quality of life are directly impacted through the safe utilization of many chemicals,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Bryan W. Koon. “The understanding and awareness of Florida’s safe history and use of these materials underscores the importance of this week.  I encourage all Floridians to take time to learn about the uses of Mercury and other commonly used materials in their area to raise the level of awareness and preparedness for their families.”

UPDATED 1:45 p.m.: Students and teachers were evacuated from Stuart-Hobson Middle School Thurday afternoon when a fire was reported at the Northeast campus.

The “fire” turned out to be an issue with a fluorescent light ballast. But eight students and one teacher told emergency responders that their eyes were burning, irritated by the odor, said D.C. Fire & EMS spokesman Lon Walls.

HazMat teams searched the building, and the students and teacher were treated onsite after the 12:11 p.m. call; no one was transported to the hospital.

Grand Ridge- The problem stemmed from a train derailment that happened earlier this month.

At least one of the cars contained a gas refrigerant called methyl chloride. The chemical can be harmful if someone were to breathe in a large amount of it.

Crews were scheduled to begin off-loading the gas from the derailed car at 5:00 p.m. Thursday, and then transfer it to another tanker,but somehow the message got distorted.

"The schools took their precautions, the next thing we know the rumor's all over Jackson County that we've had a hazmat incident in Grand Ridge. I've heard they're evacuating the town, we've had an explosion, they're evacuating the schools and parents are concerned, and these are how rumors get started," said Jackson County Emergency Management Director Rodney Andreasen.

Andreasen said crews were expected to begin the off-loading later Thursday night.

A section of Marshall Road, just west of Zeeb Road, in Scio Township will remain closed through Friday morning as an environmental cleanup company proceeds with the cleanup of an oil spill from an old transformer.
Firefighters and the county HAZMAT director were awaiting test results on the spilled oil Thursday evening before they could proceed with the cleanup. The fire department received the call around 4:20 p.m., and by 8 p.m. it was determined that the oil did not contain polychlorinated biphenyls, a highly toxic chemical compound.
...
Scio Township Fire Chief Carl Ferch said the about 6-foot tall, 4-foot wide and 3-foot deep old transformer was being transported on its side by a towing company. It had been picked up from a business near Huron River Drive and Zeeb Road.

A dry cleaning factory in Basingstoke has been damaged after a fire broke out on the premises yesterday (25thJanuary).

Fire crews were called to Johnsons Apparelmaster on the West Ham Industrial Estate at 10.30am to tackle a blaze which began in one of the industrial cleaning machines, reports the Basingstoke Gazette.

Sixteen firefighters attended the incident and had to wear special gas pipe suits to enter the building due to the presence of the potentially harmful perchloroethylene chemical.

Watch manager John Amos told The Gazette: "The fire itself was not particularly serious, but the problem is that the chemicals that they use in dry cleaning, when combined with fire, produce phosgene gas.

Hazmat teams have been called to an insulation van fire near Yonge Street and York Mills Avenue after the truck exploded and was engulfed in flames shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The cube van contained spray-foam insulation, which contains the toxic chemical isocyanate, resulting in sewers being blocked off in the surrounding area. The fire quickly engulfed the truck, parked at 44 Mason Boulevard, after the explosion and reached up to forty feet high, according to Captain David Eckerman, a Toronto Fire Services (TFS) communications officer.

The fire spread to overhead power lines, and severed several of them, resulting in downed live wires, according to Capt. Eckerman. As a result, there are some homes in the neighbourhood without power.

The Ministry of Environment has been notified of the incident, and fire crews on the scene are taking precautions with the toxic cargo. The cause of the fire is currently unknown and no injuries have been reported.

ARVADA - A semi-truck carrying hazardous materials spilled in the 12100 block of West 44th Avenue in Wheat Ridge at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

According to a 911 call, the trailer was leaking an unknown liquid onto the road and that liquid was foaming on contact. The truck had a marking on it suggesting to the caller that it contained corrosives.

Authorities say the materials ended up not being hazardous to people.

The liquid that leaked is believed to be a product that is used in ranching and not a community health hazard. There were no injuries due to the leak.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, Calif. (KTLA) -- Los Angeles County Firefighters evacuated an office building near Universal Studios Wednesday afternoon because of a chemical leak.

The leak was reported about 1 p.m. and someone in the building originally believed it was a chlorine leak. County fire officials now believe the leak likely had to do with the building's air conditioning system.

WAXAHACHIE - The recent rainwater is creating more than just flooding concerns in North Texas.

State and local officials in Waxahachie are responding to the accidental runoff of chemically polluted waters leftover from the massive chemical spill last October.

Dean Settlemyer had just arrived at his lawn mower shop on Main Street in Waxahachie when he was greeted by something unusual.

"I saw this foam floating in the air in my back property, so I walked back here and this is what I saw," Settlemyer said.

A river of foam washing down a rain swollen Waxahachie Creek.

But it wasn't so much the suds that concerned him. It was the putrid odor coming off the rushing waters.

Posters encouraging the use of personal protective equipment will soon be in all laboratories on UNC’s campus, said Mary Beth Koza, director of the Department of Environment, Health and Safety.

Koza, who presented to the faculty executive committee on Monday about the importance of safety in laboratories, said the poster would focus on personal protective equipment because of recent accidents at university labs across the country.

(editor's note: notice the URL for this story)

Tulsa Firefighters say a family of four was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.

It happened about 3:30 Tuesday morning in the 12000 block of E 18th St.

Hazmat crews detected a reading of 145 parts per million, and as high as 245 parts per million in one of the bedrooms.  The Tulsa Fire Department considers anything above 35 parts per million dangerous.

Gas levels were also high, and could have caused an explosion.  

Crews found the heater in the bathroom wall was leaking.

A 4-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl, a 28-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were treated at the scene and were admitted to the hospital in fair condition.

LOCAL firefighters are begging residents to leave drums found along the beach well alone after a hazardous materials scare at Mullawarra Beach this week.

Woolgoolga firefighters, Hazmat crews from Coffs Harbour and paramedics were called to Arrawarra Beach R about 7.10pm Monday after reports of a suspicious drum in the car park at the beach.

"It turned out to be a drum that had gone overboard from a ship a very long time ago," station commander Ray Webb said.

The 25 litre drum, property of the Wilhelmsen Ship Service in the Netherlands, was filled with the chemical Rocor NB Liquid - a nitrate/borate based compound used as a cooling inhibitor on ships.

"It is toxic is swallowed and can cause severe irritations to the skin. It's also highly toxic to waterways," Mr Webb said.

Two Albany garbage truck workers, overcome by chemical fumes today, are out of the hospital now and recovering.

HAZMAT workers sifted through the commercial garbage on their truck after the men complained on strong fumes. Turns out a household chemical sickened the workers.

The two workers smelled an acid-like odor in the cab of the commercial garbage truck. When they started having chest pains, they knew something was wrong.

As soon as the fumes filled the truck, the two workers felt the effects.

"Complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath," said Assistant Albany Fire Chief Rubin Jordan.

New details of the circumstances surrounding the 2009 death of University of California, Los Angeles chemistry researcher Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji are outlined in a report by the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA). The report says a “systematic breakdown of overall laboratory safety practices” contributed to the fatal accident. Cal/OSHA sent the report to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, who filed felony charges in the case on Dec. 27, 2011 (C&EN, Jan.2, page 7).

Police are investigating a small explosion outside a Boys & Girls Club in Fresno Tuesday morning.

It happened around 8:30 a.m. on Fulton, near Fresno's Tower District.

Trash collectors were picking up dumpsters when they heard a loud explosion.

Police and fire crews responded and determined the explosion came from a homemade chemical bomb.

Sean Johnson with the Fresno Fire Department said, "These types of devices are sometimes thought of as a prank; they're very dangerous. You shouldn't mess around with any type of pressurized device; you can get yourself hurt.