MUSCATINE — A Sweetland Ag Tech truck on its way to apply fertilizer sprang a leak Tuesday.

The Muscatine Fire Department’s hazardous materials team was called to a spill on Iowa 22, off of Sweetland Road, around 9:30 a.m.

According to Ryan Stouder, an environmental specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, as the truck was traveling, 96 gallons of liquid fertilizer from its 1,400-gallon tank began leaking at the city limits and continued for about 21/2 miles.

Stouder said a Muscatine County Sheriff’s deputy pulled the driver of a “fertilizer applicator vehicle” over to notify him he was leaking fertilizer on the road.

TUCSON - Reports of "blue powder," later determined to be an ammonia-based fertilizer, closed the Avra Valley Road on-ramp at Interstate 10 for about two hours this morning as hazmat teams stabilized the chemical and cleared the roadway.

At about 9 a.m. this morning, crews from the Northwest Fire District's Hazmat team were called to the I-10 on-ramp at Avra Valley Road after there was a report of "blue powder" falling on the roadway from a truck, according to a NWFD news release.

Crews responded and as they were cleaning the scene, two members felt burning in their throats. A Hazmat team arrived and tested the chemical to determine that it was an ammonia-based fertilizer. The Hazmat team, in protective gear, stabilized the chemical and reopened the roadway within two hours of the call.

The initial call to the Mineola Fire Department began at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday with a request to assist ETMC EMS on Farm-to-Market 1799 in Wood County. It was reported that the incident involved a man being exposed to a toxic substance. The toxic substance was reported to emergency service personnel as Temik, which MFD Public Information Officer Steve Finley said is reported by some resources as one of the most toxic poisons that may have ever been produced.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., the Quitman Fire Department was called to respond to ETMC Quitman to assist with the clean up efforts inside the emergency room after the patient was treated there.
After Quitman Fire Department assessed the situation they requested the assistance of the Mineola, Hainesville and Longview Fire Departments. The Longview Fire Department was specially requested for their Haz-Mat team and expertise in these operations.
Through a combined effort, the emergency responders determined that the threat of potential contamination to the emergency personnel who treated the exposed patient warranted immediate action. Additionally, the evaluation of the incident necessitated the temporary closure of the ETMC Quitman emergency room.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Health violated federal law governing the handling and storage of hazardous waste at two of its facilities and has fined the agency $68,000 for the violations. EPA inspections at the facilities, the Old Municipal Facility in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and 3500 Estate Richmond, Christiansted in St. Croix, found unlabeled and decaying containers of chemicals and pesticides on the properties. Many of the containers spilled and the USVI Department of Health failed to properly identify what types of waste were being stored. In some instances, the hazardous chemicals had been kept on-site for over ten years in a state of neglect and decay. Among the hundreds of hazardous chemicals on-site were pyrethrin (a neurotoxin), chlorpyrifos (an insecticide) and calcium hypochlorite (a bleach) – all of which are toxic. Federal environmental law requires hazardous chemicals to be stored, handled and disposed of properly to safeguard public health and the environment.

GEORGE — Grant County Fire District 3 and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported chemical spill and fire near George.
Emergency dispatchers received a call today at about 12:20 p.m. that approximately 800 pounds of a dry chemical fertilizer were released near Road 1 Northwest and State Route 281.
An unknown individual was reportedly cutting apart what was likely a metal container when the fertilizer ignited, according to Sheriff’s spokesman Kyle Foreman.
The resultant plume of smoke was drifting east from the scene, causing SR 281 to be closed for a short time.

Flames ripped through the building, located near Edwardsburg High School, on Section and Max Streets, around 2 a.m.

Crews had the fire under control within forty-five minutes, but thick plumes of smoke could be seen pouring out of the building for nearly two hours as firefighters worked on hot spots.

Edwardsburg Fire Chief Bruce Stack said bins with fertilizer byproduct were inside of the building, so they were concerned about breathing in the smoke.

There was no concern, however, about an explosion due to the chemicals.

“We try to stay out of the smoke as much as we can. It’s a neutral chemical in there right now, lime and hot ash, so we don’t have an explosive factor in any of it,” said Stack.

No one was hurt but Stack said a firefighter was treated at the scene for minor heat exhaustion.

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.

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.

Five houses in Bowraville were evacuated after a toxic chemical was spilt at Norco Rural Store on Carbin Street, on the afternoon of January 11.
The spill was contained inside the building, but created a “vapour cloud”, said acting captain of the Bowraville Fire Brigade Max Duncan.

The chemical was a highly toxic pesticide.

“Members of Fire and Rescue NSW attended with breathing apparatus and chemical spill suits on. They entered the building to clean up the spill, and it was placed in a HAZMAT recovery bin,” Mr Duncan said.

A CROOKWELL man was flown to a Sydney hospital on Saturday after he ingested an agricultural chemical. Ambulance and police were called to the Crookwell home at 8am.
Police said the 58-year-old had swallowed a highly toxic organophosphate He was initially taken to Crookwell Hospital. That town’s fire brigade were called to the hospital to decontaminate the emergency clinic.

Goulburn Fire Brigade station officer Daron Lesslie said it was treated as a hazardous materials incident as the man was sweating the substance from skin pores.

He was conveyed to Goulburn Base Hospital for treatment at the emergency department. Goulburn Brigade was also called in to decontaminate the room and equipment.

The department was closed for a short time while they did so, SO Lesslie said. Police said yesterday the man was in a stable condition in Prince of Wales Hospital.

Homes on Second Lane were evacuated Tuesday afternoon and evening after pesticides left in a garbage can sent a building inspector to the hospital.

Around 3 p.m., the fire department received a call that a building inspector working at 552 Second Lane had become ill, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

About half an hour later, residents nearby the home were evacuated from the street, according to the Chronicle. The building inspector was taken to the San Mateo Medical Center.

"Nobody was talking," said Patane, who gathered with residents outside the barricades to see what was going on. Patane's home on Commercial Avenue backs up onto Second Lane.

It turned out that pesticides left in a garbage can for unknown reasons caused the chemical smell and illness. Residents watched for hours while the street was sealed off and a Hazmat team from Belmont removed the material.

TUALATIN, OR (KPTV) - A HAZMAT team is trying to figure out the best way to cleanup a fertilizer spill at Interstate 5 and Sagert Street in Tualatin.

The spill happened when a truck hauling 1,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer rear ended another vehicle. The fertilizer tank came off of its mount and leaked approximately 800 gallons of fertilizer onto the highway, firefighters said.

Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue is working with ODOT, Oregon State Police, the DEQ and the company that owns the truck to coordinate the cleanup.

Two lanes of traffic are blocked on northbound I-5, just north of the I-205 on ramp. Traffic on I-205 is backed up to West Linn.

Traffic on I-5 north is also slow

When the Kane County Sheriff's Office Bomb Unit opened the refrigerator that was allegedly giving off nuclear radiation near Coal City Friday afternoon, they found a 2-liter bottle of Squirt, according to Deputy Chief Greg DeGroot of the Coal City Fire Department.

At about 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14, the Grundy County HazMat team responded to a report of a small refrigerator found in a ditch on Spring Road, west of Carbon Hill, near Coal City. The refrigerator was wrapped in nuclear warning tape.

When DeGroot arrived at the scene, he said his personal radiation detector was reading two microrems, not an unusual reading. But as he got closer, the readings went up to six and then 11 microrems.

So he backed off and a bomb unit was requested.

After speaking to a farmer, however, the original bomb unit request was canceled because he reported the refrigerator had been there for about two weeks, Grundy County Sheriff Terry Marketti said Friday.

Later, the unit was called again to the scene and eventually found the pop bottle. 

Neither the bottle nor the refrigerator were giving off radiation, DeGroot said. The radioactivity was coming from the farming fertilizer used in that area.

The fertilizer contained potash, a soluble source of potassium used in agricultural fertilizer, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's website, www.usgs.gov. 

Traffic around New Bern was a headache Tuesday afternoon for many drivers after an accident closed down one side of the Neuse River bridge.

State troopers say they had to shut down the northbound lanes of U.S. 17 toward Bridgeton after an accident with a fertilizer truck.

Some 50 to 60 gallons of fertilizer spilled on the bridge and Hazmat crews were working to clean up the mess.

Troopers say there were only minor injuries in the accident. The bridge re-opened around 7:00 p.m.

ENFIELD, N.C. (WTVD) -- A fertilizer plant in Halifax County was destroyed by fire late Friday night.

Three fire departments responded to the Helena Chemical Plant after receiving reports of a fire in the shop.

Flames then moved to the warehouse, and quickly grew.

No one was working at the time, and no one was hurt, but about 20 homes in the area had to be evacuated.

The fire smoldered into early Saturday morning.

Two agricultural workers were hospitalized Tuesday morning after being exposed to a hazardous chemical in unincorporated Napa County, authorities said.

Two women working at a nursery near the corner of Big Ranch Road and Oak Knoll Avenue, north of the city of Napa, had a reaction to a chemical that drifted near them, city of Napa spokesman Barry Martin said.

Napa County sheriff's Capt. Tracey Stuart said the sheriff's office first responded to the situation at 8:42 a.m.

She said first responders initially thought the women had been exposed to sulfur, but now believe it may have been pesticides used by nearby vineyards.

Napa County fire crews decontaminated the two workers before they were taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, Martin said.

Stuart said the women were experiencing respiratory problems.

CANTON, Ohio - A crash that occurred Monday evening in Canton slowed Tuesday's morning commuters in the area.

The accident, involving a truck carrying fertilizer, happened just after 6 p.m. along Route 30, near Harrison Avenue, according to Canton police. 

Hazmat crews were called to the scene because of concerns with the fertilizer chemicals, and Route 30 was initially shut down in both directions, police said.

CANTON -- U.S. Route 30 is back open after being closed for much of Monday night, into Tuesday morning for cleanup of an accident involving a hazardous material spill.

Stark County hazmat crews were on the scene throughout the night cleaning up urea nitrate, which is a chemical used in fertilizer.

Urea nitrate is highly explosive.

ALAIEDON TWP. – An Okemos man and lawn care worker were hospitalized today after a motorist struck a parked TruGreen vehicle on Jolly Road, causing 200 gallons of fertilizer to spill out, police said.

The Okemos man, age 92, and the TruGreen employee, age 27, were listed in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries this afternoon at Sparrow Hospital, said Ingham County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Weiss.

Weiss said the Delhi Township Fire Department and the Ingham County Hazmat Team were dispatched to Jolly Road, just west of Van Atta Road, shortly after the 9:35 a.m. accident to help contain the fertilizer spill from the TruGreen vehicle. They remained at the scene for about three hours.

Weiss said the spill appeared to be nontoxic.

WHITECREEK -- A train on the Battenkill Railroad line has derailed in the town of Whitehall.
According to Easton-Cambridge Police Chief George Bell, the call came in around noon that four cars carrying fertilizer went off the tracks.
The Battenkill Railroad Company train is a non-commuter line.

A man has died after being exposed to a toxic chemical used to make weed killer at a Melbourne agricultural chemicals plant.

Four colleagues tried in vain to resuscitate the 54-year-old when he collapsed while trying to wash off the chemical, while another man suffered a minor chemical burn to his wrist.

The dead man had been working on an exterior pipeline at the Nufarm chemical plant in Laverton North when he was sprayed with the toxic chemical on Thursday morning.

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Police said the man ingested some of the acid-based solvent.

WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt said the man was exposed to phenol, a substance used in the manufacture of herbicides.

A day after a fire burned through a storage yard at an agricultural supply business near the edge of Oxnard, authorities have found no indications of significant chemical exposure.

The Ventura County Environmental Health Division today was continuing to investigate the effects of the blaze at Mugu Farm Supplies, 3481 Sturgis Road, but officials said their initial investigation turned up no major problems.

Fertilizer and pesticides burned off during the fire, and officials worked to prevent runoff, said Greg Smith, manager of the county Environmental Health Division's Hazardous Materials program. He said it's less of a problem for such materials to burn than to run off into the surrounding environment.

"No smoke from a fire is safe, but this is not more hazardous than what you would find in a typical fire," Smith said.

The fire began about 1 p.m. Sunday in a storage shed-type building used as a shop on the Mugu Farm Supplies property, said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Ron Oatman. Driven by winds, it spread to a tractor-trailer then to wooden and plastic pallets and wax-covered cardboard boxes.

The building where the fire began was destroyed, but no one was injured in the fire. Pacific Coast Irrigation, which is separated from Mugu Farm Supplies by a chain-link fence, was not affected, Oatman said.

A five-vehicle crash Tuesday night on Route 70 in Medford seriously injured one man and closed the highway for four hours.

Medford police said Brian T. Burgess, 47, of New Road in Southampton, was driving a pickup east on Route 70 in the area of Chester Avenue about 5:52 p.m. when he smashed into the last of a string of vehicles stopped in front of him. The impact pushed three vehicles into cars in front of them.

The crash also ruptured a tank of herbicide in the rear of Burgess' truck, police said.

Rescuers had to extricate Burgess from the truck and a hazmat team was called to clean up the spill.

A liquid fertilizer spill on the Beltline exit ramp to Park Street brought out the hazardous materials team Friday morning, but the spill was  contained and the site cleared within 90 minutes.
No one was injured.
Madison Fire Department spokesman Eric Dahl said an estimated 30 gallons of liquid lawn fertilizer spilled from the tank on the lawn care truck.
The spill was reported at about 8:45 a.m. Friday, with most of the liquid spilling onto the ramp and flowing down toward a sewer drain.
"Units used buckets to capture the liquid fertilizer until the leak was stopped," Dahl said. "Absorbent material was also used to soak up the fertilizer from the exit ramp."

SALT LAKE CITY — Hazmat crews responded to a chemical spill on Yalecrest Avenue (1080 South) Wednesday morning. Around 8:30 a.m., neighbors noticed a chemical flowing down the gutter and called 911.

Hazmat crews showed up and found it was an insecticide. A pesticide company was in the area spraying a yard to kill bugs, but a hose ruptured on the truck and about 40 to 50 gallons of chemicals spilled into the gutter and started heading down the street.

“The crew quickly followed the leak down the gutter, found it, was able to stop it literally just a foot or two away from where it was going to get into a storm drain and get into the waterways up here, which have had plenty of problems with the oil leaks in the past,” said Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman Mark Bednarik.

Three employees were treated at a hospital after a pressurized canister ruptured and released fumes at a Mauldin pest control business, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

About 40 people were evacuated from hotels near Auckland Airport last night after fumes from a pesticide, which has historically been used in chemical warfare, wafted through their windows from a neighbouring farm.

International guests at Kiwi International Hotel and the Airport Skyway Lodge on Kirkbride Rd, Mangere, started getting itchy eyes due to strong fumes in the air, Fire Service incident controller Grant Thompson said.

One neighbour told NZPA the sensation was similar to when you cut onions.

The Fire Service was called around 10pm and it was established the fumes were caused by a neighbouring strawberry farmer who had poured the soil fumigant chloropicrin on his paddock.

Mr Thompson said the chemical was treated with respect because it has been used in chemical warfare.

Seven road workers have been taken to hospital after being exposed to a dangerous chemical on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
The Main Roads Department maintenance crew came into contact with a drum containing toxic pesticide on the Bruce Highway near Nambour this morning.
Fire crews hosed down the workers, who suffered facial swelling and watery eyes.
Six men were taken to the Nambour Hospital for treatment and one woman was taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

A Norfolk village was brought to a standstill today when an agricultural worker walked into a medical practice after being contaminated with a toxic chemical.

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Staff at a medical practice and the emergency services were praised for their quick actions after a farm worker triggered a major chemical alert.

The man walked into the East Harling Surgery, near Thetford, at about 11am today after coming into contact with a toxic pest-control substance.

Fears were raised that patients and staff at the practice had also been contaminated by the aluminium phosphide and 35 people were contained in the building.

The farm worker, who was complaining of respiratory problems and was taken to hospital for monitoring, was also isolated by medical staff.

Paramedics, fire crews from Thetford, East Harling, Attleborough, a chemical incident support unit from Sprowston and an NHS Hazardous Area Response Team from Cambridgeshire attended, which closed the main road through the village for more than two hours. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was also placed on major incident standby.

The New Orleans Fire Department is looking into what caused an 18-wheeler to overturn Wednesday morning.

The accident happened around 6:30 a.m. near Tchoupitoulas and Calliope streets.
According to the New Orleand Fire Department, 30 pounds of a white chemical spilled from the truck after it overturned.  A hazardous materials unit was called in to clean to up the chemical which was identified as glyphosate, a weed killer.
“The chemical is an irritant and if exposed to it for long periods could have damaging effects,” said a statement from the NOFD.

The chemical explosion of a quarantined car on Wellington's wharf sent a fireball into the air and jolted people from their sleep.

"It was just a massive boom and then it shuddered the house," Roseneath resident Scott Garvie said of yesterday's 4.50am explosion.

He initially thought it was an earthquake, but looked out his Palliser Rd window and saw plumes of black smoke coming from a burning shipping container on the waterfront.

Greg White was on the 10th floor of Telecom House in Jervois Quay when the explosion "rocked" the building.

"I looked out the window and there was a huge fireball and flames shooting up. It was pitch black. We couldn't actually see what it was. Initially we thought a boat had hit it."

The car, which was being fumigated with the toxic chemical methyl bromide, was a charred shell after the explosion. Nobody was injured.

Sheena West thought the odor permeating her home was roach spray. Renee Grimes' husband told her he smelled something rotten in the apartment.

They were among the more than two dozen people evacuated Wednesday after several people in the Hays Manor housing complex in McKees Rocks were sickened by fumes from a herbicide a worker was spraying on the lawn, said Alvin Henderson Jr., acting chief of the Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services.

Ten people -- four of them children -- were taken to hospitals where they were treated and released, said Charles Maritz, a battalion chief for the McKees Rocks Volunteer Fire Department.

"The worker said he sprayed about 9:15 a.m. He said he was an old farmer and that he mixed the herbicide with kerosene so it would stick (to the lawn)," Maritz said.

A big rig fire shut down two lanes of Interstate Five, north of Laval Road last night, but I-5 has since reopened.  Officials say the tractor trailer carrying 45 thousand pounds of a copper-based chemical caught fire.  The chemical is most often used as a fungicide.  A hazmat crew was on scene to inspect the load and make sure it doesn't pose any environmental or human health threat.  The driver of the truck did not suffer any injuries.

DOMBIVLI: Two persons were killed and three injured in a fire at the Gharda Chemicals Ltd, MIDC, in Dombivli, on Thursday.

Thirty workers were in the pesticide manufacturing unit's plant 4 when there was a huge explosion at 1.45 pm. Helpers G R Rathod and R V Pardeshi succumbed on the spot due to 100% burn injuries, while Dattatre Parul, Nilesh Madvi and Mahesh Tarade were taken to Hambarde hospital with burn injuries. Parul is in a serious condition.

The fire brigade control room, which got a call around 1.45 pm, sent nine engines which took around 45 minutes to reach due to heavy traffic.

It took two hours for the fire brigade, along with help from experts from the company, to douse the flames at Gharda, one of the biggest chemical units in Thane district.

Up to 5500 gallons of concentrated liquid fertilizer spilled onto an I-80 entrance ramp after a semi truck turned over near Doniphan Thursday morning.

Driver Matt Dobish was headed to Kearney from Hastings. When he turned off Highway 281 onto the I-80 on-ramp he said the liquid inside the tanker shifted and turned over the entire truck.

Dobish made it out with just bumps and bruises as thousands of gallons of Thio-Sul -a fertilizing chemical ran onto the grass and down a drainage pipe.

"The fertilizer was flowing out, I shut the engine off right away so there wasn't a fire but there was fertilizer flowing out," said Dobish.

The Grand Island fire department's hazmat team kept onlookers about a hundred yards from the spill to avoid inhaling any fumes.

TAMA COUNTY, Iowa - Cheese and Yogurt spilled when a train jumped the tracks Sunday morning in Tama County.

The Tama County Sheriff's Office says it happened between Montour and Le Grand. About 10 cars derailed, spilling the dairy products.

A Hazmat team also cleaned up some diesel that leaked from the train. No one was hurt.

BENDIGO Day Surgery staff were forced indoors yesterday after a chemical spill in the centre car park.
Pedestrian traffic was blocked from both sides of the building for more than two hours as CFA crews, including one officer in a Hazmat suit, identified and cleared the liquid.

Day surgery office manager Terri Billett said the chemical was believed to be a herbicide that leaked from the back of a patient’s ute in the car park.

She said it was discovered by a staff member from Melbourne Pathology, who shares the building.

Firefighters today contained a chemical spill in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere which had the potential to kill animal and marine life.

Fire Service Hastings Senior Station Officer Bruno Saathof told NZPA a Cropliner spraying unit with a full tank of insecticide was being towed by a tractor between two orchards when the towbar broke about 11am.

The insecticide was extremely toxic to animal and marine life and 150 litres of the 2000 litre load spilled.

A fire at a chemical plant west of Bakersfield, is raising new concerns about the safety of the facility.

The early morning fire Wednesday at Hondo Chemical is just the latest at the plant, which has had several fires and other violations in the past.

Employees at the Hondo Chemical facility on Stockdale Hwy. called 911 after hearing several explosions. When county firefighters arrived, there was fire and smoke. They determined it was sulfur, contained in a cement sump.

Although no one was hurt, County Environmental Health Director Matt Constantine says he is very concerned.

"This is yet another event at this facility that we have strong concerns about the ability to properly manage chemicals safely," said Constantine.

In 2007, county officials discovered the company was storing hazardous waste without a permit and ordered the owner, Jess Karr, to clean up his act.

Sirajganj, Feb 17 (bdnews24.com) — Two people have suffered serious burn injuries in an explosion at a factory in Raiganj upazila of the district.

Police said the explosion occurred in a fake fertiliser factory around 11pm on Wednesday.

The injured were identified as factory owner 'Jewel', 26, and his associate 'Jahangir', 25.

Jewel was taken to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

Jahangir, who suffered minor injuries, went into hiding fearing arrest.

Police superintendent of Raiganj circle Mahfuzzaman Ashraf told bdnews24.com that the explosion took place as chemical came in contact of fire.

HARBIN, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- A gas leak was the likely cause of a chemical plant blast Thursday afternoon in Tsitsihar City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, local authorities said Friday.

The explosion ripped through a nitrogen fertilizer workshop at around 5 p.m. Thursday in the chemical plant of Heilongjiang HeiHua Corporation, according to a spokesman with the local work and safety bureau.

Two workers were injured and rushed to hospital, said the spokesman.

There was no damage to the environment, according to test results from the city environmental protection bureau.

FIREFIGHTERS are tackling a blaze which engulfed a lorry at a Suffolk farm.

The fire broke out shortly before 7.40pm at Woodend Green Farm in Hollow Lane, Thurston.

A crew from Bury St Edmunds fire station were alerted and at around 7.55pm called for backup after they discovered the tanker was carrying chemicals.

Crew from Bury, Newmarket, Haverhill, Holbrook, Stowmarket, Needham Market and Ixworth are at the scene helping to fight the fire.

The trailer contained 1,000 litres of liquid ammonium nitrate.

Firefighters battled the flames and extinguished the blaze by 9.05pm.

A spokesman for the fire brigade said the chemicals were not involved in the fire.

WARRENTON, N.C. — A fire at a farm supply store in downtown Warrenton still smoldered Thursday, more than 12 hours after it started, prompting the closure of schools and evacuation of homes and businesses.

"It's gone. Southern States is gone. It's sad," said Milton Cooper, a Division of Motor Vehicles inspector who directed traffic during the fire in the store at 216 W. Franklin St.
SLIDESHOW    

Warrenton farm supply store fire

Firefighters let the fire burn itself out Thursday because of concerns that spraying more water on the building would let chemicals run into the town's water supply, authorities said. The store sold hazardous and flammable materials, including fertilizer, aerosols, propane and ammunition.

"We were not sure exactly what all types of hazards we had in there, as far as chemical-wise, which we did not want to wash down into our water system and get into the creeks," Warren County Assistant Fire Chief Lee Edmonds said.

SIOUX FALLS, SD - A pickup collided with an 18-wheeler pulling two trailers, sending the the truck out of control and causing a chemical spill. Eight hours later the crash,  between 12th and 26th street, was still being cleaned up.

The semi was hauling two tanks of liquid fertilizer. The second tank was turned on its side and emergency officials say more than a thousand gallons of the fertilizer spilled into the median.

It's all because of a slick spot on roads that seemed clear.

"There was a crash between the two vehicles. The semi-truck and trailers ended up in the median," South Dakota Highway Patrol Captain Kevin Joffer said. 

Akim Oda (E/R), Jan. 16, GNA - Six container shops at the Oda Market in the Birim Central Municipal Assembly, were engulfed in flames, destroying property estimated at GH¢60,000.

Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) used buckets and other small containers to fight the inferno, due to lack of fire tenders, causing amusement among onlookers.

The Birim Wood Complex Limited provided water tankers to the GNFS before the fire was brought under control.

Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Ransford Ababio, in charge of the municipality told the Ghana News Agency that the fire at the market followed another disaster at the Finance Block of the assembly at about 0500 hours on January 13, when the building went up in flames destroying a number of items.

A FARM worker has been taken to hospital after mixing chemicals.
Four fire engines from Uttoxeter, Cheadle, Longton and Newcastle and specialist appliances from Stone, Hanley and Newcastle were sent to the chemical spill at a farm in Jardines Lane, Stubwood, at 5.45pm on Thursday. 
On arrival they found a man suffering with breathing difficulties and a chemical spillage in a milking parlour. 
Firefighters in gas tight suits were sent into the parlour to retrieve the chemical drums so they could identify what chemicals had been mixed.
They then worked to contain the spillage before a specialist chemical company was brought in to dispose of the chemicals safely.
Station manager Garry Goodwin said: “The man had been mixing chemicals to carry out work on the farm.
“He’d used the chemicals before but had mixed them in a steel bucket. On this occasion he used larger quantities than normal and mixed them in a plastic bucket. 

(01-13) 14:51 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Seven San Francisco middle school students were taken to hospitals Thursday after ingesting small amounts of rat poison they found on top of a classroom filing cabinet, thinking the single blue cube was candy, fire officials said.

The Martin Luther King Jr. students, who showed no symptoms other than fear, were transported to three local hospitals, but were not expected to suffer any harmful consequences, said Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge.

Talmadge said one of the students found the small cube and took a little nibble and told classmates it tasted like a cookie.

Six others, boys and girls ranging in age from 10 to 12, then licked or bit pieces of the 1.5-inch cube of poison and either swallowed or spit it out.

The last of a group of 13 hunters exposed to a dangerous chemical that killed four of their hunting dogs was released Friday from KershawHealth.
Health officials suspect the chemical was the agricultural pesticide Temik, and an expert from Clemson Extension’s pesticide office were en route to Lee County early Friday to help with the case, said Lt. Robert McCullough of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
Three adult hunters and one 11-year-old boy were admitted to the health center on Thursday, said spokeswoman Judy Ferrell. The center was placed in lockdown mode, with state health officials and county emergency officials notified. The other hunters in the group also went through detoxification procedures.

Shortly after 7:30 a.m. Monday, Fresno Firefighters arrived on the scene of a hazardous material spill in southeast Fresno.

A rail tanker car spilled close to 7,500 gallons of Magnesium Bisulfite onto the ground at Florence Avenue near Cedar.

Battalion Chief Chuck Tobias said the tanker began to leak from one of its bottom valves, and the cause of the leak is unknown.

The Magnesium Bisulfite is used in agriculture as a fertilizer.

EWING -- The Trenton Fire Department's Hazmat team was called out to the township yesterday when people cleaning out a house stumbled upon old pesticides, Battalion Chief John Gribbin said.

Two men and a woman who had been hired to empty the home of a deceased woman on the 1000 block on Pennington Road were cleaning out the basement.

"They were carrying a box out that had a couple of containers of insecticides, glass containers," Gribbin said.

The bottles contained mathalion, which was commonly diluted with water and placed in a spray container to keep bugs off vegetables, he said. The box was leaking the liquid, and one of the workers placed the box on the floor. He put baking powder over it, then placed water on top of everything, causing the chemicals to spread, Gribbin said.

Firefighters dispatched around noon removed the containers, which contained 4 to 5 ounces each, Gribbin said. An EMS check of all the people who were in the basement revealed they were fine, he said.

Three people were poisoned in a chemical spill after a tanker carrying a toxic chemical and two trucks smashed into each other Sunday noon in east China's Zhejiang Province, local fire authorities said Monday.

A tanker carrying 30 tonnes of isopropylamine was involved in a crash with two trucks Sunday noon in the countryside of Quzhou City, which resulted in the chemical leaking out, vaporizing, and slightly poisoning three workers at a nearby factory, said Hu Xiaofan with the city's fire brigade.

The workers were rushed to hospital, along with the two truck drivers who sustained physical injures in the crash, Xu said.

Firefighters evacuated the factory and the hole in the tanker was blocked about two hours later. The chemical leak did not have a major affect on the environment, Xu said.

The flammable and toxic isopropylamine is mainly used to produce pesticide.

At least three train cars jumped the tracks near the Dallas County jail Wednesday night.
A Union Pacific train car derailed behind the Lew Sterrett Justice Center at about 7:30 p.m., sparking a chain reaction. Fire officials said three cars flipped upside down behind the jail.
One of the cars was leaking fluid, but investigators said they do not believe the chemical is a nonhazardous fertilizer. Hazmat teams have set up a dam at the site of the derailment to keep as much of the chemical as possible from leaking in to the Trinity River.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Kansas City, Kan. fire crews and a hazardous materials team spent hours investigating an apartment alarm at 1742 S. 40th Street Thursday that turned out to be a resident who had attempted to make their own bug spray.
KCK fire spokesman Craig Duke had initially said an "illicit drug lab" was at the center of the high-rise complex, called Douglas Heights Apartments.
The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth floors of the apartment building were evacuated. No injuries have been reported in the incident. Residents have been taken to the Argentine Community Center while the building was being examined.
Fire officials said chemical fumes from an apartment on the seventh floor triggered a fire alarm. Fire officials found chemicals originally believed to be part of a methamphetamine lab inside an apartment, but came to a different conclusion after questioning a woman who was inside the apartment.

About 50 people had to be evacuated after a vehicle accidentally dropped commercial pesticide onto U.S. 29, causing a potentially dangerous toxic gas to form over the area.

At about 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, Danville police, fire and emergency services, as well as the hazardous materials team, responded to an area near the intersection of U.S. 58 and 29, where a pickup truck lost some of its load of magnesium phosphide, a chemical that fumes a toxic gas when combined with water.

Crews immediately isolated the area, and evacuated downwind residents for about a half-mile near Eastwood Drive and Kent Street.

Twenty-nine homes were evacuated and more than 500 residents were urged to stay indoors for about six hours Thursday when a barn filled with pest-control chemicals caught fire in Pedley.

The fire was reported at 10:17 a.m. in the 8600 block of 54th Street, off Pedley Road, the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said in a news release.

The barn contained 75 three-pound containers of aluminum phosphide, a chemical used to kill off infestations of rodents, specifically gophers, Fire Department Capt. Phil Rawlings said at the scene of the blaze. The owner of the home runs a pest-control business, he said.

A chemical spill on the main street of Kurow was quickly cleaned up by fire crew and members of the public, police say.

Constable Craig Bennett said insecticide and herbicide spilt from two 10-litre tanks on the corner of Bledisloe St and State Highway 82 yesterday after the tanks fell out of a truck door. The latch was loose and as the driver rounded the corner, the tanks fell out and were partially ruptured when they hit the ground.

"I believe the driver stopped straightaway," Mr Bennett said. "He's turned the corner and obviously heard stuff move ... he's realised the catch of the door didn't take."

OCEANSIDE — Hazardous material crews on Friday finished cleaning up a huge cache of potentially dangerous chemicals stored behind a house near Camp Pendleton that were used to make gopher-eradication products and possibly other devices.

Acting on a tip, Oceanside firefighters on Thursday went to the house, which recently had been foreclosed on, and found four storage buildings and an underground storage area, all with containers of solid and liquid compounds and chemicals, Battalion Chief Rob Dunham said Friday.

The site on San Simeon Street, near Camp Pendleton’s front gate, immediately qualified for federal and state Superfund cleanup money. It includes Oceanside city property, where the four storage buildings were illegally built, officials said.

PARMA, Idaho – A Parma movie theater was put on lockdown Saturday night after several people began complaining of a burning sensation in their eyes.
It happened around 7:45 p.m. at the Motor Vu drive-in theater. The theater offered a Trunk-or-Treat event and then played a monster movie.
An EMS crew was on scene as part of the festivities and some people walked over to the ambulance, saying they felt a burning sensation in their eyes.
Many more people followed with a similar complaint and even the EMS crew was affected.
According to Parma Fire District Fire Chief James Cook, several fire and EMS crews were called onto the scene and the theater was locked down.
"Our idea was to keep control of the situation," Cook said.

Cook said it became apparent once they were on scene what the irritant was and called the lockdown so as not to create a panic.

That irritant was chloropicrin fumigant, which was used Friday in a field south of the drive-in. The fumigant is designed to kill bugs in the soil and is trenched into the soil about 6 to 10 inches. Occasionally, pockets of the fumigant get released into the air, which is what caused the reaction in the people at the theater.

The Environment Protection Authority is investigating a toxic chemical spill in South Australia's mid-north yesterday.

Police say a farmer saw a man in a white ute emptying a drum on the side of the track near his farm yesterday.

Country Fire Service workers have cleared the area successfully.

The chemical is still unknown and samples will be analysed next week.

About 2,000 gallons of chemical fertilizer spilled in the city's South Hill area Monday afternoon in the same area where a much larger spill damaged homes two years ago.

...
He said early reports indicate the spill "has no apparent impact to waterways and public areas to include the neighborhood."

Thibeault said the accident happened when a top feeder missed one of the rail cars, spilling about 2,000 gallons of the fertilizer. He said it was the same substance that washed through the neighborhood when a tank collapsed in November 2008, sending 2 million gallons of the corrosive chemical through the neighborhood.

A feared chemical spill in Orewa has turned out to be nothing more harmful than weed spray used by the council.

Orewa's central business district was locked down and people evacuated while fire crews investigated.

Fire Service spokesman Scott Osmond said many were concerned about the unusual smell but it had been confirmed as non-hazardous and people allowed back in the area.

Orewa's central business district has re-opened after being locked down amid fears there may have been a chemical spill.

The Hibiscus Coast town was evacuated as fire crews investigated.

Fire Service Spokesman, Scott Osmond, says they were concerned about the unusual smell that pervaded the centre of Orewa for several hours.

"It has been identified as a smell caused by weed spray used by the council," he told Newstalk ZB, "there's no hazard to anyone's health and the area's now safe for public access and re-opened."

Osmond said it was just the smell that was unpleasant and that there had been no complaints from people irritated by the spray.

A chemical odor forced the evacuation of a Pearl City school this afternoon and sent some students to the hospital.
Fire officials say the pesticide known as malathion was being used at a home next to Highlands Intermediate School.

The smell triggered the evacuation of the school.

"The first alarm came when my teacher in the building in the uppermost corner of the school said that she needed to evacuate the upper room because the odor was so pungent that her students were starting to get light headed,” said principal Amy Martinson.

Emergency officials say about a dozen people were affected by the odor.

Many of them were treated at the school and released, but two students were taken to the hospital for treatment after complaining of nausea and irritation to their throats and eyes.

Students and faculty were allowed to return to class at around 2 p.m. and the principal sent letters home to parents.

ATLANTA, Ga. - Atlanta police say a chemical spill has forced them to close several roads in the midtown area.

Authorities say a 15-20 gallon drum containing herbicide or pesticide fell off a truck and spilled at Northside Drive and 17th Street NW on Tuesday morning. Atlanta fire crews were on the scene.

North Las Vegas, NV - North Las Vegas Fire and Rescue was called to Deseret Industries Thrift Store near Craig Road and Allen in North Las Vegas just after three, Wednesday.

Employees at the store were emptying a bag of clothes when they say their nose and throat began to burn.  It was also difficult to breathe. The employees immediately brought the bag outside to the back of the store. 

Thirty people were evacuated from the business.

Seven people have been transported to three Valley hospitals. At least three others were being treated at the scene.

Within a few hours it was discovered a pesticide was found on a pair of pants inside a plastic bag brought in with donations.

"Obviously its used to kill things so in big enough quantities we could possibly have issuers with it," North Las Vegas Fire Captain, Cedric Williams, says.

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco fire officials say one person was taken to the hospital after a chemical was accidentally released into the air at a recycling facility at Pier 96.
Lt. Mindy Talmadge says a box containing ammonium phosphate—a white powder found in fertilizer—broke while going down a conveyer belt at West Coast Recycling around 6:30 a.m. Friday.
One person was taken to the hospital complaining of eye irritation.
Talmadge says about a dozen other people had their eyes flushed at the scene, and the building was evacuated.
Talmadge says the area is being cleaned up and workers should be able to return to the facility later in the day.

ALBANY, GA. -- Around 11:30 Thursday morning, the Albany Fire Department, Dougherty County Police, Dougherty Public Works, and the local Hazmat team converged on Radium Springs Road.

A pecan sprayer lost a tire and fell onto its side but the bigger concern was the puncture in the sprayer’s tank.

"The tank’s carrying a thousand gallons of water and stratego chemical, which is a fungicide they spray pecans with," said Albany Fire Department Battalion Chief Keith Ambrose.

The powerful chemical was leaking directly into a storm drain so authorities acted quickly to prevent any contamination of the water supply.

"The crews that first got here immediately started dyking the storm drain to keep it out of the storm drain," said Ambrose.

Two people have been treated by paramedics after inhaling fumes from a chemical leak at a farm in Dorset.

The fire service was called by South Western Ambulance Service to Pentridge, near Cranborn, at about 1035 BST.

It is believed a container of formaldehyde was kicked over by an animal, a spokeswoman said.

Three fire crews have been dealing with the clean-up operation. It involved the chemical being absorbed into sand or soil.

ARGYLE –– An overturned dump truck early Saturday closed down Argyle Road for about seven hours.

“We got called out at 3:01 a.m., said Jackson Township Fire Association Chief Paul Henson. “A dump truck had lost control in the 3500 block of Argyle Road and flipped on its side on the Sugar Creek Bridge. It dumped 25,000 pounds of a filter substance (it was transporting) for Roquette (America, Inc.).”

The truck, driven by Dale R. Mudgett II, 26, Wyaconda, Mo., and owned by Waggoner Solutions, Donnellson, was lying on its side across the road. Mudgett received minor injuries, according to Lee County Chief Deputy Jim Sholl.

Henson called in Lee County Hazardous Materials Task Force personnel from the Keokuk Fire Department and Keokuk Fire Chief Mark Wessel.

When the hazmat team arrived shortly after 3:30 a.m., personnel assessed the spilled material, which was identified as agricultural lime. The hazmat report noted that 50 gallons of diesel fuel that had leaked from the truck was being contained by a dike built from the spilled ag lime by Jackson fire personnel.

EAST GREENBUSH — A small pesticide spill near Mill Creek Monday afternoon had hazmat and environmental crews working for several hours on cleanup efforts, though officials say there doesn’t appear to be any threat to the water supply.

The spill happened around noon when an eastbound truck from Nature’s Way Pest Control went off the side of Morner Road and hit a bridge abutment near the intersection of Rossi Way, crumpling the front of the truck. The bridge runs over Mill Creek.

The male driver was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. No further information about the cause of the crash or the driver’s identity was available at press time.

Dave Teets, assistant chief at Best-Luther Fire Company, which responded to the scene, said the truck was carrying a variety of pesticide products, and a five-gallon jug of concentrated spray burst on impact with the abutment.

A mile-long trail of green powder accidentally dumped along Interstate 15 just north of Pocatello Sunday turned out to be a non-regulated fertilizer.
    According to Idaho State Police, the fertilizer came from a semi truck with a belly dump that was transporting the substance to Montana. The driver of the truck hit his brakes at about 4 p.m. because a small fire in the median of the interstate had reduced traffic to one lane. When he braked, it shifted his load and opened the belly dump a little.
    After about a mile, the driver realized what was happening, pulled over and corrected the problem. ISP officials held a conference call with Hazmat, Department of Environmental Quality and Idaho Transportation Department officials and determined the material was non-hazardous.
    Arrangements were made to clean it up. 

The highway has been blocked since a truck carrying herbicide caught fire late on Sunday.

Emergency services say the mop-up will be a long process because of the dangerous cargo.

The fire destroyed the b-double truck about 25 kilometres west of Bordertown.

The driver stopped when he noticed smoke coming from a rear wheel.

He was able to disconnect the prime mover before the blaze spread.

Firefighters from South Australia and Victoria worked overnight to contain the burning chemicals.

Some traffic is being diverted onto the Riddoch Highway.

Two lanes of eastbound traffic have been restored to Interstate 94 after traffic was detoured because of a chemical spill for about 4 hours, according to reports on police band scanners.

The incident began at about 9:30 a.m. when a number of insecticide containers fell from a farm truck and broke open on the highway.

According to scanner reports, the spilled chemical is marketed by the trade name Govern. An estimated 15 gallons was involved. The Material Safety Data Sheet indicates fumes from Govern are an inhalation hazard and irritant and the chemical is flammable.

Reports indicated dirt or sand wasbeing used as an absorbent material at the location. The materials were cleared from both lanes, allowing limited traffic past the site. Officials said some dirt remains on the roadway.

No injuries have been reported in the incident although the Medina Ambulance was on standby at the scene.

An agricultural spray trailer possibly containing hazardous materials caught fire at about 7 o'clock this morning east of Ellensburg in the area of Denmark and TJossem roads, according to a news release.
When the chemicals were identified as soil fumigant/pesticides, crews declared the scene hazardous and evacuated three homes and closed TJossem road between Ferguson and Denmark roads.

Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue deputy chief Rich Elliott said there were no injuries and the spray trailer appeared to be the only property damaged by the fire. It was a total loss which he estimates at less than $20,000.
Elliott said officials are unsure how the fire started, but believe it might have been spontaneous combustion. He said the fire burned for three hours

A cropduster plane crashed in Sandusky County Monday night. It happened just after 6 pm outside of Clyde off of County Road 294.

The pilot was the only person on board. He was injured and transported to Bellevue Hospital. Officials won't release his name, only saying he is in stable condition. Meanwhile, the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The chief of the Townsend Township volunteer fire department says the pilot of this cropduster plane was working, spraying pesticide in this field when it suddenly crashed. Chief Joe Parkhurst says, "A local cropduster was spraying fungicide on the corn here. And investigators are determining if he was under power or if he clipped something coming out of the field."

One of the wings of the plane clipped the empty gran bins in the back of this property. Also, part of the plane's debris hit the barn. The pilot was injured, but was up and walking around at the scene.

Parkhurst says, "When we arrived on scene he was standing by the homeowner's house. He was complaining of some chemical burn and some head injuries."

Hazmat crews were called because of the pesticide spill from the plane. Hazmat left the scene by 8:30. Parkhurst says, "Everything has been contained down on the ground. The ground has been so dry, it was absorbed into the ground."

Ohio Highway Patrol is in charge of the investigation. FAA officials are expected to be on scene Tuesday morning. The fire chief says the family who lives in the house next to the barn is staying with grandparents who live nearby. They were inside the home when the crash happened and were not injured.

Residents in parts of the Isle of Sheppey have been urged to stay in their homes and close their windows following a serious fire at a barn.
About 100 firefighters are tackling the blaze in Leysdown Road which began at about 0245 BST on Sunday.
A 400m (1,310ft) exclusion zone has been set up around the site because the barn contains a potentially explosive chemical used in fertiliser.

Graham firefighters and Central Pierce Fire & Rescue HAZMAT technicians responded to an odor complaint in South Hill Wednesday night.

A caller around 8:25 p.m. reported a gas smell on the 8600 block of 165th Street Ct. E, according to scanner chatter. Responding crews traced the smell to a shed in the backyard of a residence, according to Battalion Chief Daniel Hannah. Liquid fertilizer had escaped from its container and mixed with other yard chemicals in the shed.

The HAZMAT team disposed of the chemicals. There were no injuries or property damages.

A FIREFIGHTER was airlifted to hospital yesterday after part of a shed collapsed on him as he tackled a chemical fire at a golf club.
He was one of 35 firefighters sent to the Gunsgreenhill course at Eyemouth, in the Borders, to deal with a blaze in the greenkeeper's shed.

The 44-year-old was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with a suspected broken leg then transferred to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.

Fire crews were called to the course at around 5.30am. Seven fire service vehicles were involved in tackling the fire at the shed, where chemicals were being stored.

A Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said: "The firefighter was airlifted to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

"At the moment the extent of his injuries is unclear, but we believe he has a broken leg."

UPDATE: Cal-Fire says all eastbound lanes have reopened and only one westbound lane remained closed Tuesday afternoon after haz-mat teams determined no dangerous chemicals leaked from an overturned big rig.

The crash was reported just after 7 p.m. Monday when a big rig hauling about 4,500 pounds of methyl parathion, an agricultural-grade pesticide in powder form, crashed with at least one other vehicle, which caught fire, according to the California Highway Patrol.

People at the scene used fire extinguishers to put the fire out, according to the CHP. Two people were transported to hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, according to Cal Fire-Riverside County.

There were initial concerns the pesticide load was liquid, extremely hazardous, and that it was leaking. Authorities advised clearing a five-mile radius around the traffic crash scene.

By 11 p.m., county hazmat and environmental health workers determined none of the material had leaked. A private contractor was called out to clean up about 380 boxes of the pesticide, according to Cal Fire-Riverside County.

DESERT CENTER (CBS) ― Officials say a five mile stretch of the 10 Freeway has been closed in the Desert Center area after a tanker truck overturned.

Cleanup along the eastbound Interstate 10 between Desert Center and Indio continued after a hazardous materials crash Monday night, authorities said.

The crash occurred just east of Hayfield Road, between Desert Center and Indio and was reported just after 7 p.m.

A big rig carrying about 4,500 pounds of methyl parathion, an agricultural-grade pesticide in powder form, crashed into at least one other vehicle and later caught fire.

People at the scene used fire extinguishers to put the fire out, according to the CHP. Two people were taken to local hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, according to Cal Fire-Riverside County.