A GAS cloud sparked by a chemical spill at a factory in west Suffolk was caused by firefighters treating the substance with water, it has emerged.

Residents in Haverhill were told to keep their windows and doors closed after a tanker delivering aluminium chloride to International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF) in the town, spilt its contents at about 12.40pm today.

About 240 staff at the firm’s factory on Duddery Hill were evacuated when half a ton of the chemical spilled from the delivery truck onto the floor.

Aluminium chloride is a white powder which can cause irritation to the eyes, skin and the respiratory system if breathed or touched.

Group manager John Wilcock said fire crews from Haverhill, Bury St Edmunds and Ixworth, wearing chemical protection suits and specialist breathing equipment, were called to the incident about 12.49pm.

The crews then poured a bucket of water onto a shovelful of the chemical to test the reaction.

“We tried to treat it with a bucket of water which sent a big gas cloud across the town which quickly dispersed,” Mr Wilcock said.

Explosions rocked the mill outisde Cupar, after it was engulfed by flames on Friday morning.
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One section of the mill in Cupar contained highly explosive chemicals, including an acetyline cylinder and 10,000l of fuel, firefighters have discovered. The roof of the building partially collapsed in the fire.

Fife Fire and Rescue Service received a call about the fire at the ABN Mill in the town at around 10.40am on Friday.

Ten engines from local fire stations, as well as an elevated platform, attended and around 80 firefighters battled to put out the flames in the Damside area of Cupar.

Although the flames were extinguished at around 1pm, firefighters remained at the site for several hours to assess and cool down the highly explosive materials on site.

The mill also contains 3000l of acid, while a 30,000l oil tanker nearby is being cooled after the blaze broke out.

As Lincolnshire police find equipment used for distilling alcohol at the site of an explosion in Boston in which five people were killed, Channel 4 News asks how widespread such practices are.

Reports had been circulating that Wednesday's explosion in the Broadfield Lane industrial estate unit was caused by an illegal vodka distillery. Lincolnshire Police Supt Keith Owen said initial searches revealed evidence that supports the rumours.

"What I can confirm is that we have found chemicals on the premises which tend to indicate either the manufacture or production of alcohol," he said.

The explosion caused a fireball that left five people dead and another hospitalised. Fire officials described it as "so intense" that people could hear it five miles away.

The bodies of two men have been found in a car that had warnings about dangerous chemicals pasted on the outside.

Humberside Police said the car was parked along a river bank on Booth Nooking Lane at Winteringham, North Lincolnshire, on Friday morning.

Police, firefighters and paramedics were called to the scene where both men were found to be dead.

The identity of the men has not yet been established by officers.

In a statement Humberside Police said: "We initially attended the scene and found a red coloured car containing two adult men who showed no apparent sign of life.

"On the outside of the car there were signs warning people not to enter due to potentially harmful chemicals within.

"This prompted a chemical safety response from police, ambulance service and Humberside Fire and Rescue in order to secure the area and the vehicle with a view to safely entering the vehicle to recover the two men from within.

farm worker has been taken to hospital after a chemical incident at a farm this morning.

Fire crews from Burton, Stone, Cheadle, Longton and Hanley, including specialist vehicles, were called out to the farm in Leigh shortly after 8.30am to reports that cleaning chemicals had been mixed and created a gas cloud. 

Bob Preston, station manager for Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said a 60-metre cordon was set down and firefighters used gas-tight suits and other specialist equipment to assess the situation.

He said: "Only a very small amount of gas had been created as a result of the accidental mixing and so the incident did not require any further firefighter activity.

A mixture of chemicals caused an explosion at a leisure centre which injured three staff, a fire service spokesman has said.
Specialist officers from Humberside Fire Service attended Scunthorpe's Pods Leisure Centre, which is due to open next month, to help tackle the blast, which happened at 10.40am on Saturday.

The three male staff members were treated at the scene for cuts, bruises and the possible effects of breathing in chemicals, and two were taken to hospital.

There was no risk to members of the public and the chemicals were contained within the building.

A fire service spokesman said: "It is believed that a mixture of chemicals caused the explosion in the filtration system located in the plant room. Specialist chemical officers from the fire service were called to establish the type of chemicals involved.

A large fire has broken out at an industrial estate.
Almost 50 firefighters worked throughout yesterday afternoon tackling the blaze in Biggar Road Industrial Estate in Cleland, North Lanarkshire.

They had set up a precautionary 200 metre exclusion zone around the area when they came across cylinders of acetylene, a gas used as a fuel and a chemical building block. The safety zone was later removed.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said the fire was in a large industrial unit. No one was injured in the blaze.

Incident commander Gary Wallace said: "This has been a major blaze in a large industrial unit. Additional worries for us has been the 3 acetylene cylinders on site, the roof, which has been confirmed as asbestos, and a 1,000 litre diesel tank. These additional issues required residents to be evacuated from nearby homes. That exclusion zone has now been lifted and residents have been escorted back to their homes."

WORKERS were evacuated after a chemical spill on an industrial estate released at least 100 litres of dangerous acid.

The leak was caused by a fork lift truck puncturing a plastic container containing hydrochloric acid outside Lofting Banstead & Lustre Finishers at Gunstore Road, in Hilsea.

Limberline Road was cordoned off by firefighters at its junction with Limberline Spur after about 100 of the spilled liquid – which can be highly corrosive and cause serious burns – poured onto the ground shortly before 12.30pm.

Sixteen people were taken to hospital today after a chemical spill at a business park, a fire service said.

Others were treated for the effects of chemical inhalation by paramedics at the scene of the spillage at Crossways Business Park in Bridge Close, Dartford, Kent.

None of those affected was believed to be in a life-threatening condition.

A spokeswoman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service said a small quantity of ammonia had been contained.

NEARLY fifty firefighters turned up at a Tyneside firm today after a chemical alert.

The crews arrived at Rohm and Haas, in Chaytor Street, Jarrow, South Tyneside, just after 7am today.

There had been a report of a leak of chlorine.

Fourteen fire engines from South Shields, Hebburn, Gateshead, Newcastle and North Tyneside were put on emergency stand-by at the site.

A spokesman from the Tyne and Wear fire and rescue service said: “We received a report of a chemical leak at the plant at around 7.10am.

“There were 14 appliances, 48 firefighters and two officers dispatched to the area.

“There was a light leak from a chlorine bulk storage container which activated the detection system and instigated procedures to isolate the plant.

“The Tyne and Wear Rescue Service was mobilised as a precaution.

Four workers were killed when a storage tank exploded and caused a fire at Chevron Corp (CVX)’s Pembroke plant in Wales yesterday, in the U.K.’s worst refinery disaster for almost four decades.
Another worker was hospitalized with serious injuries, San Ramon, California-based Chevron said in a statement. Output at the 210,000 barrel-a-day refinery wasn’t disrupted and an investigation is under way.
Yesterday’s explosion was the deadliest since 28 people were killed in a blast at a chemical plant at Flixborough in northern England in 1974, according to the U.K. Petroleum Industry Association Ltd. A fire in a crude distillation unit at Total SA’s 221,000 barrel-a-day Lindsey refinery in northeast England last year left one person dead.

An investigation has begun into a massive explosion at a Welsh oil refinery last night that killed four people.

Witnesses reported hearing a blast from the Chevron refinery in Rhoscrowther, near Pembroke, on Thursday evening.

Chief Supt Gwyn Thomas, of Dyfed Powys Police, said police were informing the four victims' families and an investigation was under way into what appeared to be a “tragic industrial incident"”.

No formal identifications have taken place and the Coroner has been informed.

He said the explosion was in a 730 cubic metre storage tank where maintenance was being carried out. An adjacent tank was also damaged.

A 49-year-old man has been found dead in his flat following a suspected chemical incident.

Residents of Valiant House, in Vicarage Crescent, Battersea, were evacuated from their block this morning after the building's caretaker found a suicide note pinned to the front door of one of the flats.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan (Met) Police said: "There was a suggestion that Nitrogen gas had been used so it was treated as a chemical incident."

Police, the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade all sent specialist teams to the area after the caretaker raised the alarm at 8.05am.

Solvent Resource Management Ltd has been fined £150,000 after a spill released waste solvents and water at its chemical plant in Rye, East Sussex.

A steel tank holding solvent and contaminated water collapsed onto a retaining wall, releasing the fluids into the surrounding land.

The 340 tonnes of solvent and water was potentially hazardous and highly flammable, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The tank was found to have been damaged by internal corrosion.

A second tank was damaged during the accident, knocking off a valve which also released contaminated waste water on to the site and neighbouring property.

The area was cordoned off by East Sussex Fire for two days due to the potentially hazardous nature of the incident.

FIREFIGHTERS and environment officers had to act swiftly to prevent a chemical spill harming a nature reserve.

About 200 litres of plastisol spilled into Acton Avenue, on Long Eaton's Acton Lane industrial estate, after a drum on a lorry split.

Fire crews from Long Eaton were called to the scene, at just after 12.30pm yesterday.

They immediately requested Environment Agency officials to attend, fearing the chemical could spread to the nearby Forbes Hole nature reserve, which is designated as a site of special scientific interest. The Highways Agency were also called upon to dump a ton of sand on to the spillage to stop it spreading.

The spillage forced the road to be closed for a number of hours.

EMERGENCY services in the region were last night dealing with a major chemical contamination scare, following a car explosion which left a man dead.

The University Hospital of Hartlepool was put on high alert following a blast in the town, which claimed the life of a 58-year-old local man.

The body was found in a burned out Nissan Micra, on the town’s Old Cemetery Road in the early hours of yesterday. Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

A nearby block of flats was evacuated and a 250m cordon was put in place around Navigation Point, in Hartlepool Marina, after unknown chemicals were understood to have been found in the back of the car.

Emergency services working at the scene had to be decontaminated after coming into contact with the substance, while two police officers and three ambulance staff had to be taken to hospital. They were later discharged.

A SPORTS centre in Lutterworth was evacuated after chemicals used to help keep swimming pools clean were spilt.

The accident happened at Lutterworth Sports Centre, in Coventry Road, last Wednesday evening at about 8pm.

A chemical used to keep water clean in the centre’s swimming pool is thought to have overflowed, which then sparked an automatic fire alarm.

Justin Butlin, contracts manager for the Harborough District Leisure Trust, said: “The chemicals are fed into a machine which is well away from the swimming pool and any areas where members of the public would be.

“It appears that it overflowed into a bund underneath the machine, which is designed to collect the chemicals if the machine is ever overfilled, and this then triggered the alarm.

Ten swimmers from the over 50s early morning group had to be evacuated from Calne Leisure Centre this morning after staff discovered a chlorine leak.

The swimmers, still in their swimming costumes and trunks, were taken to the nearby John Bentley School, along with eight members of staff.

The leisure centre is now cordoned off while fire crews await specialist pumping equipment from Bristol but it is hoped it may re-open this afteroon.

Firefighters and ambulance crews were called to the leisure centre just after 7am today after reports of a chlorine leak.

HOSPITAL staff were on high alert yesterday (FRI) following what turned out to be a "minor explosion" at a North-East chemical plant.

Darlington Memorial Hospital’s accident and emergency department (A&E) was in quarantine after two workers from Ineos, in Newton Aycliffe, were admitted.

One of the workers had collapsed on site and both of them were taken by ambulance to the hospital where there were concerns over exposure to hazardous chemicals. A decision to close A&E was taken as a precaution following and it later transpired the men had been exposed to relatively harmless chemicals.

A spokesman for Ineos, operators of the former Hydro Polymers site in Newton Aycliffe, confirmed there had been an incident at 6.30am yesterday morning.

He said: "The incident was on the PVC compounding plant whereby on starting up a process, two employees came into contact with PVC compound.

"As a precaution, both individuals were taken to the local hospital for examination and are awaiting treatment for eye irritation.

"PVC compounds are generally non hazardous, and at no point during the incident was there any threat to local people or the environment.