Department of Labour officials are investigating the circumstances around a fire that claimed the lives of two workers at a factory in Jacobs, south Durban.

The fire started after an explosion just after midnight on Friday in the Chemical Technologies building on Brooklyn Road.

Firefighters spent about three hours trying to put out the blaze using foam as there were various chemicals in the building.

On 21 January, Kim Christensen of the Los Angeles Times broke the story detailing the investigative report issued on 23 December 2009 by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health into the circumstances leading to Sheri Sangji's death. Science Careers has also obtained the 95-document, which made for a harrowing weekend of reading.   

Through page after page of detailed interviews with UCLA officials, present and former members of Patrick Harran's lab, Harran himself, Sangji's college chemistry adviser, and her former employer, the investigator -- Senior Special Investigator Brian Baudendistel -- presents a nightmarish picture in the dispassionate language of bureaucracy. Reading it, one senses fury straining against the limits set by his official capacity. In the report's detailed, 3-page conclusion, his anger flashes hot.

Issued 2 years before the Los Angeles County district attorney brought felony charges against Harran and the Regents of the University of California, the report presents evidence that contradicts the narrative that UCLA has been asserting since being charged.

A tanker truck filled with propane tipped over in New Britain, Pa. Monday afternoon causing nearby homes to be evacuated for hours as Hazmat crews worked to clean the scene.

The crash happened around 4:20 p.m.

Three homes near New Galena and Trewigtown Roads were evacuated as of 5 p.m. as propane leaked onto the roadway, Bucks County officials said.

The roads were shut down and some power lines were de-energized as crews work to contain the spill, cops said.

Milwaukee firefighters are responding to a diesel fuel spill that's leaking into the creek near the Mitchell International Airport.

Hazmat teams and other units from the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the incident at S. 1st St. and W. Layton Ave. at 11:23 a.m. Monday after an off-duty firefighter called.

Sources said the fuel is believed to be leaking from the airport grounds. Fire chiefs are working with airport officials to determine exactly where the leak is coming from.

The ACT Fire Brigade and ACT Workcover both raised concerns about shoddy equipment and poor work safety practices by a Mitchell hazardous waste treatment company before last year's explosive chemical fire, according to documents released under Freedom of Information.
The documents also reveal the highly toxic nerve gas phosgene were detected in the fire's smoke plume, but emergency response crews had ''no capacity to test for larger exposure to chemicals''.

Last September, a massive chemical fire engulfed the Energy Services Invironmental waste treatment plant in Dacre Street, which was licensed by the ACT Environment Protection Agency to treat electrical transformer oil contaminated with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (known as PCBs). It hurled fireballs up to 200m above the burning building, and sent a dense plume of acrid black smoke billowing across Canberra's skyline.

Police and fire officials responded to Winthrop University Monday afternoon on calls of a chemical spill.
A student accidentally spilled about a third of a gallon beaker of hydrochloric acid just after 1 p.m. in a Dalton Hall laboratory, said Winthrop spokeswoman Judy Longshaw.
He immediately alerted university officials, she said. The room was sealed off, and the second floor was evacuated for safety reasons. No one was injured.
Campus Police, two Rock Hill Fire Department trucks, York County EMS and York County Emergency Management all responded to help clean up the acid with the proper materials.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - A Pinellas Park warehouse was evacuated after a hazardous material spilled.

Rescue workers at the scene said someone inside the building mixed two chemicals which caused a reaction.  

At least one person was treated at the facility, Envirofacts Warehouse at 5440 70th Avenue N., in Pinellas Park.

A HOSPITAL building resumed normal operation last night after a chemical false alarm caused an evacuation.

A building at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh was emptied after a leaking container of dry ice was found.

The alarm was raised when the milk bottle-sized container was found in a fridge. It appears the lid was not securely fastened, allowing the smoke-like gas to escape from the bottle. The building was cleared for around an hour while firefighters investigated.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were called to a report of a chemical incident. When we arrived, we found a bottle of liquid nitrogen which a member of staff had put in a fridge.

“The bottle was inspected and appeared to be in a safe condition, so it was handed back to hospital staff.”

After the Arizona Fire Marshal’s Office wrote up Mesa High School during the first week of school for improper storage and identification of chemicals on campus, the district is nearing completion of a comprehensive effort to identify and log thousands of chemicals in Mesa’s 84 schools.

The district is entering the names, amounts and expiration dates of the substances into a database that can be accessed by school officials and outside emergency workers. Officials also are creating a comprehensive safety training program for everyone who handles chemicals in the district — from custodians to chemistry teachers.

“If there is an emergency — say someone ingests or is exposed to chemicals — the first responder is going to want to know exactly what they were exposed to,” said district operations director Rick Michalek. In the event of a fire at a school, firefighters also need to know what kinds of explosive substances might be inside of a school.

Michalek said the district had already hired John Amenson, a safety consultant with the firm Risknomics LLC., when it realized at the start of the school year that it needed to speed up plans for a new training program and the database of all chemicals being used in the school system.

A hazardous materials crew, police officers, ambulances and fire trucks responded to a chemical spill in a UW-Madison biochemistry laboratory after a graduate student spilled a highly flammable solvent, injuring one person.
According to a graduate student in the Biochemistry building, the student spilled about 40 liters of tetrahydrofuran (THF), a chemical that can dissolve a wide range of materials including latex gloves, flooring and other plastics, in the Ronald Raines laboratory between 10:15 and 10:45 a.m.
The graduate student, who wished to remain anonymous, said they received e-mails detailing the accident. According to the e-mails, a student was "reaching for a single, large bottle of THF when the shelf of multiple glass bottles crashed down."
The person injured in the laboratory suffered a minor cut.

A FACTORY stocked with hazardous chemicals burst into flames last night in what was the second fire on the premises in a week.

The inferno reached about 30 metres into the air and destroyed the entire 3,500 square metre building on Christie Street, St. Marys after starting about 12.30am.

The factory worked reconditioning drums filled with flammable chemicals and acids.

NSW Fire Department is investigating the incident after last night's blaze was the second fire at the business in a week.

A chemical reaction at an industrial packaging plant was contained Friday morning and no injuries were reported, according to officials.
The incident occurred about noon at Greif Inc., 2400 Cooper Ave. The company manufactures industrial packaging systems for carrying products such as steel containers, fiber drums, plastic drums and more, according to its website.
Some mixed products created the chemical reaction, according to Merced Fire Chief Mike McLaughlin, who said the reaction was contained in a 55-gallon drum.
Two fire companies responded and set up a perimeter around the area. The county fire department's hazardous materials team also was called in, McLaughlin said.
"They took some samples of the product and helped define the hazards," McLaughlin said. "It just self-stabilized."

ST. LOUIS—A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients requiring millions of dollars in advanced treatment -- a burden so costly that it's contributing to the closure of some burn units.

So-called shake-and-bake meth is produced by combining raw, unstable ingredients in a 2-liter soda bottle. But if the person mixing the noxious brew makes the slightest error, such as removing the cap too soon or accidentally perforating the plastic, the concoction can explode, searing flesh and causing permanent disfigurement, blindness or even death.

An Associated Press survey of key hospitals in the nation's most active meth states showed that up to a third of patients in some burn units were hurt while making meth, and most were uninsured. The average treatment costs $6,000 per day. And the average meth patient's hospital stay costs $130,000 -- 60 percent more than other burn patients, according to a study by doctors at a burn center in Kalamazoo, Mich.

DONEGAL TOWNSHIP, Pa -- A Freightliner tractor-trailer carrying a glue-type substance drove off Interstate 70 eastbound by mile marker 2 in Donegal Township Saturday afternoon.
The tanker spilled its liquid glue-like cargo into a drainage ditch and HAZMAT was called to the scene.
One lane is currently open as cleanup continues in the area.

A labourer was killed and five others sustained injuries in an explosion at the Sulphur Recovery Unit II at MRPL on Saturday. Nagesh, 25, is the dead.

All the injured were rushed to KMC and they are out of danger. The blast occurred during welding work at the site. As two chemical engineers of the unit were on leave, chemical engineer from a different unit was on duty when the accident occurred.

The contract labourers blamed the MRPL for not taking adequate safety measures, which according to them led to the mishap. A blast had occurred in MRPL a few years ago. The deceased Nagesh of Kulai here was working in MRPL as a contract labourer for the last four years.

“The refinery operations were not affected. The management is investigating the incident and a high-level expert committee has been constituted,” said an official release from MRPL.

WILKESBORO --
The number of methamphetamine labs being found in Northwest North Carolina is on the rise again.

The discovery of clandestine meth labs had dropped markedly after a 2006 law required that certain cold medicines — ones that can be used in making meth — be placed behind pharmacy counters so they aren't as easily accessible. But the numbers are rising again as a simpler "one pot" method of producing methamphetamine spreads.

Wilkes County saw a spike to 19 meth labs in 2011, the fourth most of any county in the state, according to statistics from the State Bureau of Investigation. That's up from the seven labs busted in 2010. Officials found just two labs in 2009, one in 2008 and none in 2007.

Watauga County had 22 clandestine meth labs in 2011, the second most of any county in the state. Watauga had 20 labs found in 2010, but just three in 2009, five in 2008 and three in 2007.

Those local trends mirror a statewide trend that saw clandestine labs drop in 2006, but start climbing again in recent years.

WARRICK CO., IN (WFIE) -
Five suspects have been arrested in what authorities are calling a two county drug ring.

Warrick County authorities arrested two people last night on meth related charges and Posey County Deputies say that lead them to three more suspects who investigators say were stealing anhydrous ammonia from the Posey County Co-Op.

Deputies say the two groups were working together and communicating through text messages.

That's how two arrests turned into five.

Springfield, Mo — A Springfield man is charged with first degree arson tonight after investigators say his meth lab sparked a fire in an apartment. Firefighters say the chemical fumes put other tenants in danger. Dale Penechar is charged with first degree arson.

An eviction sign is hung on the door of the apartment the fire started in on west Walnut Street. “It bothers me a lot the fumes could make the entire apartment, if not the building, poisonous,” neighbor Ruth Fleming said. Fleming lives right across the hall from the apartment that caught fire. She says meth is a problem. “This is where I can afford to live right now and it's prevalent,” Fleming said.

Many people who live in the eight unit building were potentially exposed. “Smoke is bad enough as it is however when you add the chemicals being used in meth production it adds significantly to the danger,” Springfield Fire Marshal Bill Spence said. “When you start heating them in a fire and you are putting them in the atmosphere they are an inhalation issue. People in the immediate area are inhaling those chemicals and those toxins.”

REEVES COUNTY - Interstate 20 traffic is being diverted after a tractor trailer rolled in Reeves County.

Both directions of traffic are being affected at this time.

Traffic is being diverted onto the service roads near mile marker 13.

HAZMAT crews are on the scene because of a material spill.

TXDOT officials tell NewsWest 9 the material is believed to be a highly flammable compound cleaning liquid.

The cleanup will take several more hours.

LOWELL, Mich. (WZZM) Lowell Public Schools dismissed High School students early today after a routine check turned up an expired science chemical.

Officials with the district say the chemical posed no immediate risk, but as a precaution hazmat was called in to dispose of the material.  Students were released early to ensure their safety.

As a result, the district also dismissed middle school students early so administrators could coordinate bussing.

PALMETTO BAY, Fla. (WSVN) -- Two pedestrians were taken to the hospital after they were struck in the street.

Skyforce HD was over the scene of the crash, which happened near Southwest 146th Street and South Dixie Highway, Friday.

A pool truck struck the two pedestrians, and the crash caused the truck to spill about 100 gallons of chlorine on the roadway. HazMat crews were called out to the scene because of the chemical spill.

FOUR canisters holding a toxic chemical, that is fatal if inhaled, were found dumped beside the Calder Alternate Highway at Ravenswood yesterday.
Police set up a 100-metre exclusion zone around the canisters and blocked the highway in both directions.

County Fire Authority biohazard officers, wearing full gas suits with breathing apparatus, placed the canisters and chemical that had spilled onto the ground in recovery buckets around 4pm.

CFA operations officer Alun Hughson confirmed the damaged canisters contained the pesticide fumitoxin used to control rabbits.

He said the dangerous canisters were likely to have been dumped.

Ever since Sheri Sangji was fatally burned in a December 2008 lab fire, UCLA officials have cast it as a tragic accident, saying the 23-year-old staff research assistant was a seasoned chemist who was trained in the experiment that went awry.

But Sangji was neither experienced nor well trained — if trained at all — in the safe handling of air-sensitive chemicals that burst into flame, ignited her clothing and spread severe burns over nearly half her body, according to a report on a Cal/OSHA criminal investigation obtained by The Times.

The 95-page report adds new detail to the circumstances surrounding Sangji's death and provides insight into the basis for felony charges filed last month against UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran and the UC Board of Regents. Based on labor code violations, the charges are thought to be the first stemming from an academic lab accident in the United States.

Texas (AP) - Authorities say three workers have been injured in a fiery explosion at a South Texas well site that destroyed an oil tank.

The fire about three miles south of Pearsall (PEER'-sahl) burned for several hours before being extinguished around 9 p.m. Thursday.

Pearsall Volunteer Fire Department Chief Placido Aguilar said Friday that authorities are trying to determine what started the fire on a fracking tank, as three workers were on top. He says the fire then spread to a 30-foot tall oil tank, leading to an explosion that blew off the lid.

ALBION — The Kendallville Fire Department HAZMAT team took action Wednesday to keep fish in Skinner Lake from dying over spilled milk. An overturned dairy truck prompted the call Wednesday, along with the fact that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management classifies large volumes of milk as a hazardous material, explained Noble County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy Chad Willett. Stephen Trahin, 65, of Fort Wayne had just pulled the tanker truck out of Gorsuch...

WYE MILLS - Emergency crews, including a hazardous materials team from the Anne Arundel County Fire Company, are working to clean up a liquid chlorine leak at Chesapeake College
Queen Anne's County Department of Emergency Services reports no injuries were caused by the leak, which left the pool's building closed. DES officials said only the one building was evacuated.
DES officials said the entire campus was not cleared because the liquid chlorine was no ventilated out of the one building. Police though did have the entrances to the college blocked off while emergency crews were handling the scene.

LAREDO, TX. -Steve Landin, fire chief , said it is troubling to have at least one hazardous chemical spill in a week, accidents involving trucks that bring waste from the oil and gas reservoir Eagle Ford Shale.
He said companies that transport the waste violate a Texas law by carrying these substances uncovered and carelessly, causing spills on the streets and roads.
One of the most common places where these incidents are recorded are at the end of Highway 35 , arriving at about the Juarez- Lincoln Bridge , where firefighters continue to come and clean up.
Most troubling , he said, is that you do not know the type of waste that these trucks carry and in many cases not even the drivers know. "We are asking people when they see a spill of this type to call the police immediately to the number 795-2800 , for officers to give out violations to the driver and to clean up," he said.

A Brevard County hazardous materials team and firefighters were alerted about 10 a.m. today after a 22-year-old man using a chemical set called to report concern about a possible hydrogen cyanide leak at a home on the 3700 block of Erie Street in Cocoa.

“(The man called) dispatchers saying that he was trying to extract chlorophyll from spinach and was concerned because he had read that it could turn into cyanide. He had read somewhere that spinach contained cyanide,” said Lt. Jeff Taylor, spokesman for Brevard County Fire-Rescue.

The man was apparently using a chemical set to carry out an unidentified experiment, officials reported.

Cyanide, often described as having a bitter-almond smell, is a lethal, fast-acting poison that can be found in a number of products, from food to plant like spinach.

“We did send a truck out but it turned out to be nothing. There was no leak,” Taylor said.

A fire in a spray paint booth at Mack Trucks Inc. sent seven workers to area hospitals about 1 p.m. today.

The fire spread from the paint booth into nearby ground-level ductwork, said Lower Macungie Fire Department Chief David, and it was confined to the area by workers using dry chemical fire extinguishers.

While a second alarm was called, it was cancelled and recalled before the trucks left their respective stations, Nosal said.

Firefighters worked mostly on the ductwork, he said.

The fire took 30 minutes for firefighters to bring under control, according to a report on wfmz.com.

Six of the workers were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, Nosal said, and the seventh for chest pain.

SPRINGFIELD - A spill involving 60 gallons of flammable chemicals at the Solutia compound in Indian Orchard triggered a hazardous materials response from the Springfield Fire Department, officials said.
Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis Leger said the spill, reported at 2:44 p.m., was contained inside a concrete holding basin and there was little danger to the public. Workers at the plant at 730 Worcester St. were not evacuated.
There were no injuries.
The spill involved a mixture of the chemicals ethanol, butanol and formaldehyde that Leger said was considered a flammable hazard.
The mixture was diluted with water until it was no longer flammable and then pumped into another tank, he said. The spill was at the Solutia property but did not involve Solutia employees, said company spokesman Erin Shetler. It involved employees with Ineos Melamines, a separate company that occupies space at the Solutia compound.

CONCERNS remain following the end of the investigation into the May 2010 fire at Grosvenor Chemicals in Linthwaite.

Safety watchdogs have admitted their views on the catastrophic fire were restricted because of legal issues.

But Colne Valley councillors have said there are still worries about the firm and over a steep access road used by all vehicles to and from the site.

They spoke out following a meeting of Kirklees Council when a report on the aftermath of the blaze was presented.

Health and Safety Executive inspector Rom Naplocha said that the inquiry was over, but there would be no final report.

Inspectors were limited in what they were able to divulge, due to the possibility of legal proceedings and because of commercial confidentiality.

Concerns over a possible chemical exposure shut down the Escambia River Bridge on Highway 4 between Century and Jay Thursday morning.
A  female reported about11:30 a.m. that she was overcome by some sort of chemical smell in her vehicle which prompted her to stop at the Santa Rosa County end of the bridge. The Jay Fire Department, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded.
The woman was transported by private vehicle to Jay Hospital in good condition.
Authorities were not able to pinpoint the alleged smell and quickly determined that there was no danger to the public before re– opening the bridge to traffic.

Nearly 100 students and staff who were taken to hospital after a chemistry experiment was thought to have gone wrong at Dresden’s Technical University seem to have been the victims of a false alarm – and a garlicky smell.

Technicians gave the all clear on Friday afternoon after examining the chemistry laboratory where it was thought an experiment with arsenic-containing compounds used to make World War I poison gas.

Although 97 students and staff - and five fire fighters - had gone to hospital complaining of nausea, headaches and some started vomiting, no-one had been poisoned. The only clue that remained was that many said the 'poisonous gas' had smelled of garlic.

Two people have died after an explosion and fire at a factory in Jacobs. Firefighters were called to the company, Chemical Technologies, on Brooklyn Road just after midnight.


They have told Newswatch that when they arrived on scene the building was engulfed in flames and the fire had already spread to the top of the factory.  

Fire officials spent about three hours trying to put out the blaze using foam. This is a safer method due to the various chemicals in the building.   

CASPER, Wyo. — A Green River man was badly burned during an on-the-job explosion in Jamestown on Wednesday morning.
In a media release, Sweetwater County Sheriff Rich Haskell said witnesses at the oil field company shop in Jamestown where the mishap occurred told deputies that Larry Bingham, 48, was apparently using a cutting torch in proximity to a barrel marked “Methanol” when the explosion occurred.
Bingham ran from the shop, then drove himself to his residence in Green River, where deputies and emergency medical technicians found him.
He was taken to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs by ambulance, then flown to the Western States Burn Center in Greeley, Colo., with second-degree burns to both legs and a possible broken arm.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a chemical leak that sent Hazmat crews rushing to a milling plant in Buffalo.

Everyone made it out of the building safely, the weather blew any other potential dangers away. Wednesday morning, people were seen inside the building at work.

When chlorine began leaking inside ADM Milling, near General Mills, the Buffalo Fire Hazmat team rushed to the scene on Ganson Street.

Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield said, “Very strenuous, very difficult work, under difficult circumstances. It’s very cold out tonight, but all parties chipped in, did a marvelous job.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Firefighters have stopped a chlorine leak that set off an alarm at the Cedar Rapids northwest water treatment plant.

A news release from the city says an alarm tripped around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday in the chlorine cylinder room. No one was in the room.

Firefighters wearing hazardous-materials suits entered the room and found a chlorine leak in a line from a cylinder to a manifold. The leak was stopped around 9:35 p.m.

City officials say the plant resumed operation about 9:55 p.m. and that there was no contamination of public water supplies.

AS part of their continuing joint effort to smash secret drug laboratories and storage facilities in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force are offering valuable tips on how to spot an illegal drug lab or a home-made laboratory where millions or even billions of pesos worth of amphetamines are being ‘cooked’

PDEA chair Undersecretary Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. said the following tips can be used by the public in identifying secret drug factories where shabu, Ketamine and other dangerous drugs are locally manufactured.

Once a clan lab is spotted, Gutierrez said an individual can join the PDEA “Operation: Private Eye” which is a reward and incentive scheme designed to encourage private citizens to report to PDEA any suspected illegal drug activities particularly the presence of clan labs and so-called shabu ‘tiyangges’ in their community.

A University of Florida laboratory explosion last week caused chemical burns on a graduate student's face and lips, the skin to be torn from his fingertips, and glass to become embedded in his chest and abdomen, according to a police report released Wednesday.

Graduate student Khanh Ha, 27, was conducting research on cyclic peptides in the Sisler Hall laboratory of chemistry professor Alan Katritzky when the Jan. 11 accident happened. Ha told UF police that he was doing an experiment with sodium azide, a shock-sensitive compound, and an acid before the explosion.

He told police that he added water to the experiment just before the explosion, according to the report. Chemistry department chairman Daniel Talham said typically the mixture wouldn't be explosive when the chemicals are handled property, so an investigation into the incident is expected to add information on the cause.

"We don't really know what happened in this case," he said.

Sodium azide is known to be explosive when heated to high temperatures or when it comes in contact with certain metals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mixing the compound with strong acids produces hydrazoic acid, which also is explosive.

Sodium azide also was involved in an October explosion in Katritzky's laboratory that injured another graduate student. Following last week's explosion, work in the lab involving chemicals was suspended pending results of an investigation into the incident.

An experiment gone wrong last week left a student with chemical burns to his face and lip, glass embedded in his chest and abdomen, deep cuts to his right hand, two fingers tinted blue and a couple fingertips hanging by the skin.
Khanh Ha told University Police Department detective Hank Middleton he was conducting an experiment in Room 213 of Sisler Hall on Jan. 11 when an explosion occurred after he added water to compounds he was handling, according to a police report released Wednesday.
Ha, a 27-year-old chemistry graduate student, was working with two compounds: sodium azide and chlorine glycine GABA acid, according to police. Ha said he had experimented with both before. But when he added water, the compounds exploded.
Ha, who was working inside a protective enclosure called a fume hood, was taken across the hall by two other people in the lab, according to police. When officer Henri Belleville arrived, Ha was washing his hands.
As Belleville approached, he noticed Ha's lab coat had small holes burned in it. The coat was stained with blood, and there was a puddle of it pooling at Ha's feet, according to police.
Ha was wearing safety goggles, but Belleville said he wouldn't open his eyes. He wouldn't talk either. To answer questions, he only nodded or shook his head.
Ha is in stable condition.

KITTERY, Maine — A chemical reaction at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard brought its hazardous response team to Building 357 on Tuesday morning.

According to shipyard public affairs officer Dana Eddy, the team responded at about 9:30 a.m. About one pound of calcium hypochlorite had been placed in a hopper that had previously contained oily rags, she said.

This caused a chemical reaction within the hopper, which was immediately removed from the building. Eddy said the reaction subsequently ended, and there were no personal injuries.

Calcium hypochlorite is used to disinfect drinking water systems and is closely related to household bleach or pool chemicals, she said.

PHOENIX - Workers at the Amazon warehouse in southwest Phoenix were evacuated Tuesday after a hazmat scare.

According to the Phoenix Fire Department, three workers became lighthanded while unloading a 53-foot trailer.

Hazmat crews were dispatched to the scene and measured high ammonia readings inside the trailer. The building was evacuated as a precaution

A "non-toxic" leak from a truck spraying foam insulation into a home on Claremont Road prompted response from the county HAZMAT team Tuesday afternoon.

According to Ridgewood Fire Department Captain Paul Monton, run off from the leak spilled into two separate storm drains. 

"They have two parts that they mix together in the back of a box truck," Monton explained. "One of the hoses leaked from one of the barrels of the chemicals, spilled into the truck and there was a stream of the product coming out onto the roadway and into the storm drains."

The chemicals were a "non-toxic" product but the contractor was still required to have the county HAZMAT response team clean the estimated 10-gallon spill because there exists potential for environmental harm, Monton said. The foam was found as far as Glen Rock, he added.

The University of Florida has re-opened the floor of Sisler Hall where a chemical explosion injured a graduate student last week.

A contractor on Monday removed the remnants of the chemical involved in the explosion, sodium azide, said UF Environmental Health and Safety Director William Properzio. An extensive decontamination and cleaning lasting most of the day also were done, he said.

Sisler Hall was closed following the explosion but three of the hall's floors re-opened Friday. The second floor of the hall and UF chemistry professor Alan Katritzky's laboratory, where the explosion took place, were opened Tuesday as classes resumed following the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Three people were sent to Shannon Medical Center after a pressurized-air tank explosion in the 3800 block of Christoval Road.

San Angelo firefighters and EMS were notified about 8:25 a.m. Monday to a industrial accident, Captain Fred Barnett said Tuesday morning.

"They were pressure testing a tank that had been built and it broke loose and exploded," Barnett said. "Three people were injured and transported to the hospital."

Barnett described the tank as being six feet in diameter and about 20 feet tall.

It was unclear how close the three were to the tank. A firetruck responded, which is standard with a call about serious injuries, but there was no gasoline or chemical explosion.

Several UF departments are reviewing lab safety policies after two students were injured in separate incidents in the last three months. The second put a graduate student in the hospital.
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said hazardous materials teams responded to six incidents — three explosions, two spills and one reported odor — on campus in the last year.
The chemical explosion on Wednesday in Sisler Hall that injured graduate student Khanh Ha, 27, and Gainesville Fire Rescue firefighter Andrew Marsh, 25, is still under investigation, she said.
The chemistry department and UF's Environmental Health and Safety division are working diligently to ensure students' safety in labs and to minimize the risk of accidents, Sikes said.
In October, an explosion caused by a set of chemical reactions surprised the department, said Daniel Talham, chair of the chemistry department.
Last week's explosion, which Talham said was caused by similar reactions, surprised the University Police Department.
"For our agency to respond to two similar incidents involving the same chemical in the same building in three months is fortunately not something that we routinely see," said UPD spokesman Maj. Brad Barber.
In both cases, the reactions involved sodium azide, but Talham said that particular chemical was not necessarily the culprit.
The director of Environmental Health and Safety, William Properzio, said sodium azide is routinely used in labs. He said UF has about 3,000 labs on campus.
Since the October explosion, EHS has worked with the chemistry department to ensure researchers follow safety procedures, he said.

CARTERET — Emergency workers are still trying to stop a leak today at a Carteret fuel refinery that has released 3,000 gallons of combustible liquid, authorities said.
All of the liquid spilling from a tank at the BP Products refinery, 76 Roosevelt Ave., was contained in a dyked area, Carteret Fire Chief Brian O'Connor said.
O'Brien said the product, reformate, which is used in blending fuel products, was first discovered leaking from a storage tank flange about 8 a.m. today. The tank holds 3 million gallons of the product, the chief said.
He said the liquid was being transferred another tank, and an environmental cleanup company was at the scene to remove the liquid that leaked from the flange.

One person was killed and six others seriously injured in a fire that broke out at a chemical factory.

Kanpur DIG Rajesh Rai said the fire broke out at six in the morning in Sumit chemical factory in the Panki area.

The fire spread rapidly as many chemical tankers were kept nearby and the situation turned serious trapping the workers one of whom was

Berlin (CNN) -- A chemical accident involving chlorine gas injured nearly 40 people Tuesday at a plant for security technology in Bruhl.
Of the 39 victims, seven were seriously injured, according to Markus Brachschoss, a spokesman for the local fire department. Around 300 people were inside the plant at the time of the accident.
The incident occurred when two chemicals -- sodium hypochlorite and hydrochloric acid -- came into contact, emitting chlorine gas.

EDMOND — A dust cloud and a kerosene heater caused an explosion that injured four employees Thursday morning at an Edmond manufacturing business, a fire official said.

Edmond Fire Maj. Kelly Lewis said shortly before 9 a.m. one of the machines at NOV Tuboscope, 3600 S. Kelly, near the 33rd Street-Kelly intersection, became clogged and maintenance workers were attempting to clear the obstruction.

A pipe became disconnected and the polymer, a type of powdery substance, was released, creating a dust cloud, Lewis said. The cloud reached an industrial space heater that runs on kerosene and had an open flame, he said.

Four employees suffered burns from the fire caused by the explosion, Lewis said. One has been released from the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, he said. Two others with less severe burns were admitted to the hospital’s Paul Silverstein Burn Center. An employee with more severe burns is in the intensive care unit, Lewis said.

A fire at the University of Maryland College Park is now under control.

The Prince George's County Fire Department tells WBAL Radio the blaze started around 3:15 this afternoon in the J.M. Patterson building.

Fire officials say no one was injured.

Mark Brady, a spokesman with the Prince George's County Fire Department, says firefighters found a fire in the electrical room on the second floor of the chemistry building.

The fire had spread to the attic of the building.

Brady says the sprinklers and firefighters were able to bring the fire under control in about fifteen minutes.

He says as a precaution the Hazmat team was called because of the use of chemicals in the building.

Students are still on winter break.

Hazmat crews in Palm Beach County have suited up at least six times in the past three months to determine whether white powder found in letters, on an airplane and even in an envelope from India contained anthrax - the cause of a Lantana photo editor's death more than 10 years ago.

While the spate of recent white powder incidents might seem to signal they are increasing, the number has remained about 300 incidents per year nationally since 2008, according to FBI statistics.

Recent incidents at the state attorney's office in West Palm Beach and the Ocean Ridge home of Vice President Joe Biden's brother drew more notice, authorities say

"The ones recently are a little more high-­profile," said Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Chief Ray Carter. "So they attract a little more attention."

Though a few powder incidents are deliberate hoaxes or threats, most are unintended and harmless, fire-rescue officials said.

Apple on Friday said that explosions at two of its parts suppliers last year were caused by airborne aluminium dust created during the milling and polishing of products such as iMacs, MacBooks and iPads.

The company made the disclosure as part of its sixth annual “Supplier Responsibility Progress Report”, in which it also for the first time listed all of its major suppliers. The report covers issues such as worker safety, labour rights and environmental impact.

Explosions

The explosions took place at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, China, in May and RiTeng Computer Accessory, subsidiary of Pegatron, in Shanghai in December. The Foxconn explosion killed four workers and injured 18, while the Pegatron incident injured between 59 and 61 workers.

What could possibly be good about not one but two explosions in 3 months, both with injuries,  in the same academic lab?  What could be good is the apparent progress the laboratory made between the two incidents.

In the more recent of two explosions in Alan Katritzky's lab in the chemistry department at the University of Florida (UF), on 12 January, "Preliminary investigation determined that appropriate safety procedures and protective equipment were in use, likely significantly mitigating the effects of the explosion," says UF chemistry department chair Daniel Talham, quoted by Jyllian Kemsley at Chemical & Engineering News.


Graduate student Khahn Ha, 27, who was working with sodium azide, sustained a "gash to his upper body, injuries to his hand and burns to his face" in the January explosion -- but avoided even worse harm because of his safety glasses, the Gainesville Sun reports. A firefighter wearing a face mask also received "minor chemical burns to his face and eyes" but is doing well, the Sun continues.

Three months earlier, an explosion in the same lab, involving the same chemical, injured student Mohamed Ibrahim, who was not wearing appropriate safety gear and suffered cuts to his face. Ha's mishap, troubling as it is, therefore seems to indicate that by the time the second explosion occurred safety was being taken more seriously in the Katritzky lab.

A chemical leak was reported Monday morning at Union Pacific Railroad’s Avondale rail yard, 100 Avondale Garden Road in Avondale. Initial reports from Jefferson Parish stated that it had occurred at the Avondale Container Yard next door, but container yard officials there said it wasn’t in their yard and calls to Union Pacific clarified the incident.

About two ounces of sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate spilled in a container there about 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to Raquel Espinoza, who directs the Omaha-based railroad’s corporate relations for Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
No injuries were reported.
...
The chemical is a substance used in fungicides and algaecides. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate is used for treating “ornamental plants, turf grasses, terrestrial landscapes, in commercial greenhouses, garden centers, nurseries and storage areas.”

Various crews responded to a fire at the Gastar Energy Simms Pad on Rines Ridge Road in Marshall County Saturday morning.

Authorities said it took about two hours to put out the fire.

Marshall County EMA Director Tom Hart said he received a call about the fire around 7:30 a.m.

Hart said two holding tanks containing drip gas caught fire.

Management failings are to blame for last year's massive fire at a chemicals packaging company in Moerdijk, near Rotterdam, according to a safety council report on the blaze, Nos television reports.

The report, which has not yet been officially published, says Chemie-Pack failed to meet operating permit conditions and did not keep to its own policy or procedures. This led to the company 'failing to take any safety measures to manage the fire,' Nos quoted the report as saying.

The report also criticises the local Moerdijk council which was aware the company was not meeting the conditions of its licence but did not sharpen up supervision, let alone close it down.

Left-wing green party GroenLinks has called for a debate on the findings and their implications for public safety with justice minister Ivo Opstelten.

The cost of the damage and the clean-up operation after the fire is put at €71m. Chemi-Pack was declared bankrupt in August.

A CORDON set up in Stowmarket as fire crews dealt with a chemical leak at a factory has been lifted.

The leak comes three days after a similar incident at PPG Industries, in Needham Road.

Police confirmed there had been another leak at the paint factory this afternoon and that firefighters were on scene.

A road closure was put in place at Needham Road and police had urged residents in the immediate area to stay indoors. At 7pm the cordon and road closure were lifted.

Between 500 and 1,000 litres of hazardous liquid was spilled according to reports from fire crews on scene.

ANDERSON COUNTY — Environmental workers will spend this week sorting the remains of the rundown warehouse where an Anderson man mixed and stockpiled hundreds of chemicals, including some that leaked into the land surrounding Hartwell Lake.

The warehouse was the “main lab” used on Frontage Road, where a man in his 70s told authorities he was trying to create homemade fuel while storing chemicals for friends.

The lab was demolished Friday, reduced to a pile of rubble that will be sorted into stacks of recyclable materials and stacks of trash for a landfill. The building was the last of a collection of leaky warehouses to be torn down. Its demolition marks a milestone in a multimillion-dollar cleanup that has been in progress since June.

The property owner, George Smolen, has told authorities he cannot afford to pay for removing the pollution created at the former Flex-A-Form site near Interstate 85. The tab has more than doubled in the last seven months as federal environmental crews have uncovered and tested 946 containers of chemicals, many of them mislabeled and at least two decades old. The cleanup cost stands at $2.5 million.

DURANT, OK -- Durant officials say three juveniles who broke into the old middle school were arrested and taken into custody today.

Emergency Management Director of Bryan County, James Dalton says around 2:00 this afternoon they responded to to the school between 6th street and Cedar where they found the school's laboratory had been vandalized with several bottles of unknown chemicals shattered over the floors and walls.

Dalton says the trio was found with the chemicals on them, and the teens along with a contaminated officer were taken to MCSO where they were de-contaminated.

Officials say the Region 5 Hazmat Unit was called in where the crew determined the chemicals were of minimal harm.

EWING — Two township police officers and a security guard were quarantined and decontaminated as a precaution following a Hazmat response to a commercial building early Friday, Trenton fire officials said.
Called out on a fire alarm just after 3 a.m., the officers and guard reported finding a mysterious haze inside the FMC Corporation building on Charles Ewing Boulevard.
Since the building housing lab and office space also stores a great deal of hazardous chemicals, the Trenton Fire Department’s Hazmat Team was called along with Ewing firefighters, Trenton Capt. Fred Doura said.
There was no fire and no chemical spill in the building. The police and the guard were decontaminated, then taken to a local hospital for observation, Doura said.

Firefighters have warned residents not to use sharp objects to defrost freezers after being called to a "chemical incident" last night.

The fire brigade was called to a home in Rackham Mews, near the Streatham end of Mitcham Lane, at about 9.30pm yesterday, whose occupant became alarmed when he punctured a hole in his freezer.

Refridgerators contain a liquid chemical called Freon, which can escape as gas if there is a puncture and settle in the lungs, causing health problems, if inhaled.

A spokesman for Tooting fire station said: "We get called out to these kinds of incidents, which are reported as chemical incidents, more often than you would think.

"A leak to a fridge can be dangerous and residents are right to call us if they are concerned.

"But we would urge anyone defrosting their freezer not to use a sharp knife to scrape off the ice. Just turn it off and wait a couple of hours and that should be enough."

Firefighters are on scene of an industrial fire at Bimax Inc., 158 Industrial Road in Springfield Township.
The fire was reported around 11:30 a.m. as a chemical fire in a chemical-production area of the company.
A second alarm was called, but soon cancelled. Officials on the scene said the fire was extinguished shortly after noon.
Loganville Volunteer Fire Co. Chief Rodney Miller said employees were able to extinguish the small amount of chemicals which caught fire for an unknown reason. The fire is still under investigation.
He said nobody was injured, though there were about six people working at the time, and workers are able to return to work. He said there was no structural damage from the fire, and minimal damage to the building's interior.
According to the company website, the facility develops specialty chemicals for polymer applications.

FARMINGTON -- Sgt. Ken Grimes is worried a public statement about a homemade explosive detonated recently in Farmington sent the wrong message.

It described the explosive as being made of paper products -- consistent with homemade fireworks -- but failed to explain the differences between fireworks and illegal homemade explosives, according to Grimes, of the fire marshal's office.

The confusion surfaced just days after a new law made the sale and personal use of fireworks legal in Maine, leaving Grimes questioning what people actually know about the legality of explosives.

"Even though the fireworks law passed, it's still illegal to make an explosive device," he said.

The initial statement, released in an email from the Department of Public Safety, was based on Grimes' comments about his office's investigation of the incident, in which a homemade explosive was detonated on a remote farm road two weeks ago in Farmington.

The apparent source of the smell was a pond located off school property, in an adjacent subdivision behind the portables. When it got worse, the principal called authorities.

Seven portables nearest to the pond were evacuated, Marsh said, and the students relocated to other classrooms. An Orange County Fire Rescue Hazmat team investigated.

According to a Fire Rescue spokeswoman, Hazmat determined the cause of smell was a chemical fungicide/algaecide that had been sprayed into the pond recently.

County Roads & Drainage officials confirmed the chemical, which prevents algae blooms, is non-toxic. Hazmat cleared the area after determining chemical levels were not dangerous.

According to OCPS, two students initially reported nausea, but soon recovered. A third student reported asthma-like symptoms and was treated with an inhaler and sent home.

jeweiner@tribune.com or 407-420-5171

Eight cars on a CSX train derailed in Grand Ridge before 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. No one was injured.

The train contained several chemical shipments, bringing the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Jackson County Emergency Management, Grand Ridge Fire Department, Jackson County Fire Rescue, Marianna Fire Department, Sneads Fire Department and several other first responders to assess the scene.

As of noon on Saturday, the only chemical that spilled was PVC pellets. Jackson County Sheriff Lou Roberts said the pellets would be vacuumed up by environmental services.

A fire that broke out in the garage of a house on the campus of The Lawrenceville School was extinguished before it could cause any significant damage this afternoon, Friday, Jan. 13.

Spontaneous combustion of rags soaked with a chemical cleaner started the fire in the two-car garage attached to a faculty members’ residence on Woods Drive on the private school’s campus, according to Lawrence Township Fire Inspector Rich Soltis, who investigated the blaze.

The fire, which spread from the rags to the contents of a plastic storage tote and a vacuum, generated a decent amount of smoke and activated a heat detector connected to the home’s fire alarm system, Soltis said.

PORTLAND -- Several people were injured and the science wing was evacuated after an explosion at David Douglas High School Friday morning, officials said.
Portland firefighters were called in to the school, at 1001 SE 135th Avenue, just before 11 a.m., according to Tommy Schroeder with Portland Fire and Rescue.
When a student turned on the faucet of a sink in the chemistry lab, the water mixed with a sodium metal compound and caused the explosion, Schroeder said.
Twelve people were taken to nearby hospitals and treated for respiratory discomfort, according to Paul Corah with Portland Fire and Rescue. He said several more people were evaluated at the school. He estimated a total of 25 people were exposed to the chemicals.
Fire crews were ventilating the area to clear out the chemical residue, Schroeder said. The affected area was closed for the remainder of the day.

The University of Florida has suspended chemistry work in a laboratory where explosions injured graduate research assistants this week and about three months ago.

Paul D'Anieri, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, said such work in UF chemistry professor Alan Katritzky's lab is suspended indefinitely as procedures and research done there are reviewed.

William Properzio, UF's director of environmental health and safety, said use of the chemical involved in both the explosion this week and one in October also is being suspended.


"We're going to stop that now and may stop it forever, I don't know," Properzio said.

The second floor of Sisler Hall, where the laboratory is located, remained closed Friday, but the other three floors of the building were reopened to faculty and students for the first time since the blast.

Properzio said some of chemical involved in the explosion, sodium azide, remained in the area where the explosion happened.

An outside contractor is expected to remove the chemical Monday, he said, which coincides with UF's Martin Luther King Day holiday and would allow the building to reopen when classes resume Tuesday.

Properzio said the small amount of the substance means there is no risk for others to return in the meantime to the building's other floors, which house labs and offices.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have arrested three people they say were in the Arayan brotherhood, accusing them of running a meth lab in Albuquerque

Wednesday night officers responded to an apartment near San Pedro Drive and Kathryn Avenue, after neighbors complained that something smelled so bad it made some of them sick.

Police say they found a man and a woman cleaning up what looked like a meth lab.

They also caught another man they say was involved and called in a hazmat team to clean up the chemicals.

Operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport returned to normal following a Wednesday night hazmat incident that delayed passengers aboard some international flights.

About 8 p.m. a Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue hazardous materials team responded a flight that arrived at the airport from Haiti, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.

A passenger on that flight was carrying a container of liquid that prompted the response, sheriff's spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.

"Hazmat came as a precaution," she said. "A passenger had some sort of insecticide in his luggage."

Several fire engines arrived at Terminal Four near the U.S. Customs area and passengers were not allowed off the commercial aircraft for about two hours. Greeters waited inside the airport for the travelers to deplane.

No terminals were evacuated and nobody was injured, Moschella said.

"It was, again, a very small amount of this substance," she added.

The passenger with the suspicious luggage reportedly told officials that the substance was fertilizer.

HOUSTON -
Workers at a Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in southwest Houston had to be evacuated after a chemical leak, according to Houston firefighters.

The hazmat team responded to a call for help at the plant on Holly Hall Street and Almeda Road just after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Crews found a piece of machinery that was leaking ammonia. 
air in the bottling area. 

After three hours, workers were able to return to their stations. 

No one was hurt.

The company at the centre of a chemical leak in Northamptonshire has said it is a "mystery" why two workers collapsed while working with "non-hazardous chemicals".

AmegA Sciences based on the Royal Oak Estate in Daventry said the staff were taken to Northampton General Hospital.

John Walton, a director at AmegA, said "The two employees were diagnosed with low haemoglobin levels."

The two men are under observation but are expected to make a full recovery.

Both Northamptonshire Fire Service and the company's laboratory are investigating what happened.

There were no injuries and minimal damage in a small fire on Wednesday evening in an eighth-floor chemistry lab in the Mellon Institute on Fifth Avenue in Oakland, Pittsburgh firefighters said.
Acting deputy fire chief Larry Yakich said a Carnegie Mellon University professor and student had completed some tests, cleaned up, put a chemical inside a container and placed the container in a plastic-lined cardboard box. There apparently was some chemical residual on the container and it reacted with the liner or the cardboard to start the box on fire shortly after 7 p.m., Yakich said.
The professor and student used an extinguisher to put out the fire that burned the top of the cardboard box, Yakich said.

An explosion at the University of Florida that injured a graduate student and firefighter Wednesday involved the same laboratory and chemical as a similar incident in October.

The student, 27-year-old Khanh Ha, was working with sodium azide in a Sisler Hall lab when the explosion happened. He suffered serious injuries to his face, hand and body. He remained hospitalized in stable condition Thursday, according to UF.

A firefighter who responded to the scene, Andrew Marsh, received minor chemical burns to his face and eyes but was reported by Gainesville Fire Rescue to be in good condition.

Sisler Hall was closed Thursday as UF's Environmental Health and Safety department investigated the incident. The hall houses labs and offices, so no classes were affected.

FIREFIGHTERS have left the scene of a chemical spill at a paint company’s premises.

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Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service sent nine appliances and 45 firefighters to PPG Industries UK Ltd based in Needham Road, Stowmarket, just after 2pm to deal with the solvent leak which was caused by a mechanical failure on the water cooling system in the resin plant.

The service’s group commander Ian Bowell said: “This incident has been contained on site thanks to the work of the on site staff at PPG and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service.

“During the incident we worked closely with the Environment Agency and are pleased to say that all internal drainage systems have done their job containing any contaminated water on site for removal at a later date.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused an explosion that injured four people Thursday morning at a company near W. 33rd Street and N. Kelly in Edmond.
Firefighters said just before 9 a.m., something started a fire at Tuboscope, a pipeline company based out of Houston. The fire then sparked a chemical explosion that injured four men.

One man received third-degree burns. He's listed in serious condition. The other three men are listed in good condition with first-degree burns.

Firefighters said by the time they arrived, the fire was out. They have reopened traffic in the area while they investigate what started the fire.

The fire may have had contact with a chemical called MEK, or Methyl Ethyl Ketone, and that may have caused the explosion. MEK is a liquid solvent used in several products.

A 30-year-old man was killed in a freak accident on Wednesday morning while he was working in a plastic recycle factory — Surya Traders in Kaikondanahalli on Sarjapur Main road in R.R. Layout. The deceased identified as Niranjan Ramdev Prasad was a native of Bihar. According to preliminary investigation, the incident took place around 12:30 pm when Niranjan was trying to cut open a 20 litre plastic drum, filled with industrial waste with an electrical cutter.

Accidentally, the chemical drum exploded and he fell on the electrical cutter which cut into his chest and he died on the spot. The blast led to a fire in the factory. The factory workers who were in the premises tried to douse the fire with water. Three fire tenders finally extinguished the fire. Property worth `2 lakh has been destroyed in the fire.

The police suspect that the plastic drum which was filled with highly inflammable substances was tried to cut open without removing its lid and that could have led to the explosion. Police have sent the pieces of drum and other materials to the Forensic Science Laboratory. The HSR Layout police have registered a case against the company owner and will take further action based on the FSL report.

Two workers in York County are rushed to the hospital after inhaling a powder.

Both workers were treated and released, but the ordeal caused a four hour hazmat incident.

An employee at Engle Machinery in Manchester Township found the powder-like substance on an unopened box around 730 Wednesday morning.

A company official says that worker, and another employee, became ill when they took the box outside and the substance became airborne.

Hazmat teams were called in, ran tests and found the powder was only dangerous because it became airborne and was not handled properly.

The substance was determined to be similar to what is used in swimming pool filters or pesticides. Hazmat crews cleared the scene before noon and the company is operating as normal this evening.

EDMOND — The discovery of a potentially hazardous substance in a chemistry lab at the University of Central Oklahoma prompted the evacuation of a science building Wednesday.
Adrienne Nobles, spokeswoman for the university, said a professor was doing inventory in a lab inside Howell Hall when he discovered picric acid, a crystalline solid that can be detonated by extreme heat or electric charge.