A fire erupted yesterday (26 May) morning in a chemical storage unit at the Sri Jayawardanepura University, Fire Service Department sources told The Nation. An emergency call was placed at around 11.30 a.m. yesterday to the Fire Service Department regarding a fire at the university, the source confirmed. A dispatch unit from the Kotte station and two units from the Main Fire Station were dispatched immediately, to quell the fire, he explained. No casualties were incurred due to the fire, since Firefighters were quick to arrive at the scene to put it out, informed sources in the University pointed out to The Nation.

When inquired as to the causes for the breakout of fire in a chemical storage unit, with a university campus, Fire Services officials said that no conclusive reasons were identified for its onset. However, they stated that the storage unit was flooded due to the recent rains that had most of Colombo under water. University sources also confirmed that the storage unit became flooded due to the rains.
When asked why a hazardous materials site, such as the storage unit, did not have adequate preventive measures against such inevitabilities, Fire officials stated that it was a serious risk that must have been addressed by the university administration.However the university sources declined to comment.

A small fire erupted at the Montana Refining Company in Great Falls after a chemical leak at the plant on Thursday.

An MRC official says that a small tube leak fire occurred inside the heater fire box.

Great Falls Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Steve Hester says a flammable chemical called naptha overfilled and fire started burning into one of the stacks.

Water doused the flames and Hester said refinery officials just worked to keep the stack cool, and said this type of event isn't out of the ordinary.

An Oklahoma City business was evacuated Thursday and several workers were treated after a chemical solution started smoking and made people nauseous, firefighters said.
Fire Maj. Tammy McKinney said several workers at Macklanburg-Duncan, 4041 N Santa Fe Ave., were mixing a sodium hydroxide solution about 3 p.m. when the solution started smoking and three workers became nauseous.
The building was evacuated and the three workers were treated by emergency workers.
“We've given them oxygen and their symptoms have gotten better,” McKinney said.
Eight other employees were evaluated by paramedics, she said.
Fire Deputy Chief Marc Woodard said the mixing of mislabeled chemicals caused the situation. None of the workers were taken to the hospital, he said.
Macklanburg-Duncan manufactures building products such as weather stripping, flooring and decorative moldings.

Emergency services received a call at 11:47 BST on Thursday reporting a fire in a chemical lab in the David Keir building on Stranmillis Road.

Six fire engines, two "specialist appliances" and a mobile command unit went to the incident.

An investigation is under way to determine how the fire started.

In a statement, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue service said: "Fire crews dealt with a fire in a chemical storeroom of a laboratory on the third floor of the four-storey building.

"It was quite a challenging incident for firefighters to deal with due to the extensive size of the building and the nature of what was involved in the fire."

"Fire crews ventilated the building and the incident was dealt with at 16:10 BST. Early indications would suggest the fire was accidental."

No-one was injured during the alert. A spokesman for QUB said it was too early to say what caused the fire and that a storeroom had been extensively damaged.

The mixture of chemicals in an optometrist's office at 1567 Lemoine Ave. on Tuesday afternoon resulted in a small fire that was quickly doused with a fire extinguisher. 

Fort Lee Fire Chief Keith Sabatino said that the building was evacuated, and because the fire was the result of an unknown chemical mixture, the Bergen County Hazardous Materials Response Team (HazMat) was called in to evaluate the proper response to the incident. 

Bergen HazMat determined that the chemicals used were alcohol-based and gave clearance for the fire department to proceed with ventilating the building before allowing anyone to return.  

A passing police officer heard the activated fire alarm and responded to the call. Both the police officer and a fireman who "took in smoke" were taken to an area hospital for precaution. 

"We're lucky that everyone was safe," Sabatino said. "The goal of every call is to get everyone home safe, and we did."

A nine-mile stretch of the interstate in northern Gwinnett,  Barrow and Jackson counties was shut down in both directions around 3:40 a.m. Tuesday after the tractor-trailer, which officials said was hauling possibly hazardous chemicals, caught fire near Ga. 211.

Braselton police Assistant Chief Lou Solis said the right rear brakes on the Old Dominion Freight Lines truck caught fire around 3:30 a.m., and the fire spread into the trailer.

“He had twin trailers, and in the rear trailer, he was transporting hazardous liquids,” Solis told the AJC.

When Barrow fire crews arrived and saw placards on the truck indicating that it was hauling corrosives, “they looked it up on their emergency response books and it said you need hazmat suit,” Solis said. ”Barrow County doesn’t have hazmat suits, so they called Gwinnett fire out here.”

Gwinnett fire crews suited up and doused the fire, Solis said, but not before some 200 to 300 gallons of the hazardous liquid spilled from the trailer.

Solis said shortly after 7 a.m. that officials were waiting on a private hazmat cleanup crew to arrive “and determine what can be moved and what cannot be moved.”

WINDER, Ga. — A crash and fire involving a tractor-trailer -- and fears of a toxic chemical release -- shut down both lanes of a nine-mile stretch of Interstate 85 northeast of Atlanta for a time.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the truck caught fire early Tuesday morning near Georgia Highway 211, and authorities were concerned about possibly hazardous chemicals on the truck.

Barrow fire Lt. Scott Dakin tells WSB-TV that a rear tire on the truck caught fire, and the fire spread into the trailer. Barrow County fire officials said the blaze was under control by 5 a.m.

A strong chemical odor inside the Leslie Pools store brought firefighters to air out the building after two employees evacuated the store shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. A chemical fire started an hour later inside the front door.

Manteca Fire Battalion Chief David Marques held his men outside the building not knowing what caustic chemicals they were dealing with and called in the San Joaquin County Hazmat Team from Stockton.  Another hazmat specialist employed by the pool company was responding from Oakland.

Firefighters had placed an exhaust fan in the doorway to draw fumes out of the building. They then stood between their engines and waited for the arrival of the hazard materials specialists.

At about 10:30 a.m. one firefighter yelled “fire”. The firefighters scrambled toward the pool sales building.  An immediate call to the dispatcher alerted the call center that they now had a structure fire.  Another fire engine was sent to the scene not knowing what was going to develop once the chemicals started reacting with each other.

Fire Captain Rob Grycel and firefighter Brad Missouri were the first to make it to the front of the building. They grabbed the water line that had already been laid in front of the structure as a preventative measure.

A small blaze centered in and around buckets filled with calcium hypo chloride igniting nearby cardboard displays near the front window. Flames licked up the sides of the containers from the floor level.  Firemen were also concerned about putting water on the fire not knowing if it would cause a chemical reaction as well.

Kutch, May 17 (PTI) One person was killed and two others injured when a fire broke out during unloading of chemical from a tanker at Kandla complex near the port, police said. "An inferno broke out when some chemical was being unloaded from a tanker at a terminal operated by a private firm Kesar Chemicals in Kandla complex near the port," they said. One person died and two others sustained injuries, officials said. Around ten fire fighters including those of Kandla port reached the site and brought fire under control, they said, adding the tanker and the terminal were damaged in the incident.

Beach rocks that caused a California woman's shorts to catch fire and severely burn her legs and hands appeared to be coated with phosphorus, but it was unclear how the flammable chemical got onto the stones found near a military base, authorities said Thursday.

"We have never been aware of anything like this before," said Denise Fennessy, assistant director of Orange County's environmental health division.

Field tests indicated the phosphorus was found on two rocks from San Onofre State Beach that will be submitted to a state-certified laboratory for verification, Fennessy said.

A naturally occurring mineral, phosphorus is found in oxidized form in rocks, but in its pure elemental form can burn when exposed to air. Phosphorous compounds are used in everything from flares to fertilizer.

Coast Guard and fire officials, however, said they never heard of local beach rocks igniting.

A chemical fire in Bristol, Pennsylvania led several residents to contact police Wednesday complaining about a sulfur odor in the air, according to officials.

   In a press release Wednesday, police said that the odor reported by residents could be traced to a chemical fire overnight at a Dow Chemical facility in Pennsylvania.The odor was reported in several central and southern New Jersey communities, according to the company.

   In a statement, the company said that two holding tanks at the Rohm and Hass Bristol Plant containing two different materials, ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate, were struck by lightning at 3:35 a.m. and ignited.

   The chemicals involved are used in the manufacturing of paint, according to the company.

(Medina)- The Medina Fire Department along with three other area fire departments battled a blaze behind the Medina Steakhouse on W. Liberty Street.

Fire Chief Bob Painter says the fire started around 10:30am Wednesday at an unoccupied warehouse used by the company Free Oil. The building housed chemical solvents. Forty-five firefighters worked to put out the fire.



No one was injured but the building is a total loss. The walls collapsed and even melted some of the siding at the steakhouse and a nearby home.

It's not known yet what caused the blaze.

FRONT ROYAL -- An early Wednesday morning fire in Front Royal destroyed a house, injured two firefighters and sent all four family members jumping through first floor bedroom windows to safety outside.
...

Warren County Fire Marshal Gerry R. Maiatico said he would issue an official finding on the cause of the fire later today. Maiatico said the leading theory is that a polyurethane wood finisher mixed with sawdust started the fire through a heated chemical reaction.

Martocci said he was using polyurethane wood finisher while installing hardwood floors in his home and stored the residual sawdust and wood finisher in a bag.

The fire is the second since Saturday in which wood finisher mixing with

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) - Fire investigators return to the scene Wednesday of a five-alarm fire at the Doyle Manufacturing complex at 40th and Broadway in Quincy.
...
A Doyle spokesman says the fire was in a building where they paint fertilizer equipment.

Tipton says that building contained flammable materials like aerosol cans, which led to several explosions inside.

"It's always a dangerous situation when you come on a manufacturing facility because you don't know what's inside at first and the first moments are a little bit anxious when you first start," said Tipton.

Tipton says the metal roof on that building collapsed on top of the fire, making it difficult to fight the flames. 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A fire with flames 100 to 200 feet high erupted Friday at an oil well east of Cheyenne owned by SM Energy.

The fire at 1781 County Road 136 started in an oil treater containing 20 to 250 gallons of an oil and water mixture, Laramie County Fire District 2 spokesman Lew Simpson said. The treater overflowed and was ignited.

An oil treater removes sediment and water from crude oil before it is transported to refineries.

"It ignited, and it was threatening about 42,000 gallons of other oil fuel stored nearby," Simpson said. "We managed to control it — we shut off the fuel to the fire."

About 60 firefighters responded to the scene from several agencies, including six Laramie County fire districts, the Torrington Fire Department and F.E. Warren Air Force Base. Firefighters from the local Frontier Oil refinery also helped out.

The fire was extinguished in about an hour. No injuries were reported.

A semi trailer burst into flames on the lot of a shipping service center in Salt Lake City on Thursday morning.

Firefighters say that when they arrived on scene of the fire, located near 1900 South Industrial Road (1900 West), at around 10 a.m., the semi was fully engulfed in flames.

Investigators say there was an acid spill during the truck’s previous run and the chemicals used to clean the spill combined, causing heat that ignited the fire. Firefighters were able to put out the blaze and no one was injured.

“The chemicals combined, produced a lot of heat and when the new load was put on, there’s a spontaneous combustion that produced a fire,” said Jason Asay, Salt Lake City Fire Dept.

A hazmat team was called in to clean up possible hazardous substances, but the cargo only contained packages of batteries and baby food.

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Firefighters investigating the source of a strong odor in downtown Menlo Park early Wednesday discovered a man was using a dangerous chemical to refine gold in the back of a pickup truck. San Mateo Fire Department spokesman Brian Molver said the incident began when a patrolling deputy saw a trunk ajar on a car parked on Edison Way.
“When he investigated that he got a whiff of a chemical smell that was coming from across the street from the back of a pickup truck,” Molver said. “The deputy was exposed to this fume and called in fire to investigate.”
Arriving firefighters noticed that something was going on in the back of the truck and called in a hazmat team.
“The person was refining gold in the back of the truck using electric heating units and the gold was in the beakers,” Molver said. “He was using chromatic acid and the county environmental health officer is following up with sheriff’s deputies and the fire department.” Chromatic acid is a mixture made by adding concentrated sulfuric acid to a dichromate, which may contain a variety of compounds, including solid chromium trioxide. It is used to brighten the metal but is considered carcinogenic.
It is rarely used industrially because of health and environmental concerns.

WILDOMAR ---- One person was hurt Monday while helping to extinguish a fire that started in a swimming pool pump at a home in Wildomar, authorities said.

Firefighters with the Riverside County Fire Department responded at 11:25 a.m. to a report of a blaze at a home on Sellers Road, according to a report by Cheri Patterson, a spokeswoman for the department.

A leaky swimming pool pump caught fire, and pool chemicals that were nearby were partially burned, according to the report.

A neighbor who helped extinguish the blaze before firefighters arrived was having problems breathing, the report said. The person was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries.

Hazardous materials officials with county and state fire departments investigated the incident and determined that a relatively small amount of chemicals had leaked from the pump, and the leak did not endanger the community, according to the report.

EMERYVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- A hydrogen leak forced employees at Pixar in Emeryville to stop working and gave hundreds of students an unscheduled day off.

The problem was caused by a hydrogen tank at the AC Transit bus lot at 45th and San Pablo. Several blocks were closed to traffic. At 7:45 a.m., hazmat units were called in after someone reported seeing a ball of fire coming from one of these tanks. "One of the hydrogen tanks at the hydrogen fueling station at AC Transit began leaking hydrogen," Sgt. Fred Dauer said.

Several streets were immediately blocked off. Within minutes, Emeryville police began evacuating people from neighboring businesses. "We all evacuated and left things as they are in the office," Sage Wilk-Brown said. "They came pounding on our door and said we need to evacuate. So, I didn't get too much work done," Randy Shigio said.

The crew members of a container vessel had anxious moments following fire in a portion of the vessel, which was in the deep sea about 50 nautical miles away from the Mangalore coast. In a release, the Coast Guard said the situation was under control and the ship's crew members had been able to partially extinguish the fire.

The Coast Guard said its Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Mumbai received distress message from m.v. CAP Norte around 10 a.m. about fire in the vessel's cargo containers that contained 15 tonnes of polyamide sulphide chemical.

The Coast Guard's fast patrol vessel ICGS Savithri Phule was sent from the Mangalore coast and it reached the place around 1 p.m.

LOS ANGELES - A worker for an independent construction firm suffered minor burns today after he broke a one-inch gas line and ignited leaking gas outside the track stadium at USC, according to fire department and gas company spokesmen.
The broken gas line at 3470 S. McClintock Ave., near Loker Stadium and Cromwell Field, was reported just before 8 a.m., fire department spokesman Erik Scott said.
"The department dispatched 27 firefighters and a Hazmat team to the site of the break," Scott said. "We also notified Southern California Gas, which sent repair crews to the scene."
Firefighters flooded the break area with water to keep the location cooled down until the gas company could shut off the leaking gas, Scott said.
"One adult male, a construction worker who reportedly broke the line, was treated at the scene for minor burns but was not transported to a hospital," Scott said. "We completed our work at left the scene around 10:30 a.m."

A hazmat fire was reported at Hair Systems Inc., a multinational distributor of hair products whose warehouse is located at 30 Park Ave. in Englishtown, at approximately 12:30 p.m. Friday, an Englishtown Police Department dispatcher confirmed.
...
The fire began in back of the warehouse in a section of the building called a "powder room" where some type of manufacturing or packaging was located, according to Hall. The building is mostly used for storage, little  distribution is done at the warehouse, but chemical research is done at the facility, Hall said. A vat containing an oxidizing chemical ignited in the powder room, and the fire was mostly contained to the vat.

The fireman moved the vat out of the "powder room" and used copious amounts of water to douse the flames which sparked a fire due to a chemical reaction, which Hall said was the only treatment to combat such a type of fire.

Heavy smoke conditions were observed and a decontamination trailer, supplied by Manalapan Township Fire Company #1, was activated for the fireman who directly combatted the hazmat fire.

Natrona County Fire crews responded to a science experiment gone wrong this morning at Midwest High School. A small fire from a chemical reaction caused the incident that investigators describe as accidental. One student was treated and released with a chemical burn.

Natrona County Fire Investigator Dave Baker, says they got the call around 9am

“There was smoke in the hallway and in one of the class rooms. Upon interior examination they found an area in the chemistry lab where there as a small fire, but the fire had actually burned itself out.”

Baker says there was no structure damage and the fire was isolated to a counter top. He declined to release any more details about the chemicals involved until the investigation is complete, but he did say it was an experiment they’d done many times before without incident.

No explosion or chemical release accompanied the fire.

The incident occurred just after 9am.  First responders isolated the area and classes were sent home for the day.

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — A ferocious fire has gutted an industrial building and damaged several others in central Pennsylvania.

The three-alarm blaze started about 10 p.m. Wednesday at the former Lear Corp. building in Carlisle, Cumberland County.

More than 100 firefighters from several counties were called in to help. A series of booms were heard throughout the night. It's believed propane tanks stored inside the buildings exploded.

Some residents in the area were evacuated. Several homes sustained minor damage.

The complex has had a variety of owners in recent years. Carlisle Events, owners of the local fairgrounds, bought the property in 2010 and planned to redevelop it.

No one was hurt. Investigators are trying to determine a cause but the fire was so severe they may never be able to determine what sparked it.

A fire at the Arizona Chemical plant in Springfield Tuesday was quickly put out.

But there are still questions over how the fire started.

Around one o’clock, emergency workers responded to a fire originally reported at Rock-Tenn paper mill. The location was quickly changed to Arizona Chemical.

Firefighters from Springfield and Panama City quickly jumped into action to put out to blaze.

Both units, along with Arizona Chemical’s in-house fire and rescue team, had the fire under control within twenty minutes.

While the location and source of the fire are known, the cause is not.

"We're going to do a root cause find out what the problem is and make sure that this doesn't happen again to the best of our ability. But the good thing is no injuries, no incidences, no destruction, and everyone is safe." said DeVaughn Stephens of Arizona Chemical.

At the time of the fire, there was supposedly a lot of tall-oil in the pond, which is quite flammable.

A fire that ignited accidentally as a chemist was testing diesel fuel did an estimated $75,000 damage early Monday afternoon in a laboratory on BNSF Railway property, authorities said. No one was hurt.

Shift Commander Mike Thompson, of the Topeka Fire Department, said firefighters were called at 12:21 p.m. to the scene, which Investigator Michael Martin identified as being in a ventilation hood within the BNSF Rail Yard Chemical Testing Lab at 100 N.E. Jefferson Trafficway, Building 8.

Thompson said a chemist had been testing fuel when the hood that pulled the exhaust out of the building failed, igniting the blaze. Smoke damage was reported throughout the building, he said.

Martin said fire suppression crews arrived to find heavy black smoke coming from the building’s roof vents.

“Fire crews initiated an interior attack of the fire and quickly extinguished the blaze,” he said. “A primary and secondary search of the lab revealed the occupants had self-evacuated prior to the arrival of the Topeka Fire Department.”

Martin said investigation revealed the fire originated in a fuel testing containment area.

“The fire was determined to be accidental in nature, and associated with the failure of the testing area ventilation system,” he said.

Martin said no hazardous or volatile chemicals posed any risk to the public as a result of the blaze.

Quick action by firefighters and efficient response by local utilities likely prevented a more serious outcome during an incident Friday morning at Johns Manville in Richmond.

Richmond Fire Department Chief Mike Crawley said a fire was caused when an elbow joint on a hopper came loose, spilling molten glass inside the facility at 814 Richmond Ave.

Crawley said the temperature of the glass can reach in excess of 2,100 degrees, and RFD Battalion Chief Bob O'Neil said Friday afternoon that there were several tense moments Friday morning as the glass spread throughout the building and threatened to destroy the structure.

"You can't walk into the building now it is so hot," O'Neil said just before 5 p.m. Friday.

"At one time, I thought we were going to lose the building. We had two ladder crews putting cold water on the molten glass and we had more lines running into the building to cool the glass, but the smoke was getting worse and I was worried we were going to lose it."

Liverpool (WSYR-TV) -- A science class demonstration turned dangerous at a Liverpool middle school Thursday. Three students and a teacher ended up in the hospital with burns. Two of the students are still being treated.

“The first thing that we saw was…there were kids laying in the hallway and that is a pretty horrible sight,” said Liverpool Superintendent, Dr. Richard Johns.

By the time Johns was called to Soule Road Middle School, fire trucks and ambulances surrounded the main door. Inside an eighth grade science room, three students and a teacher were being treated for serious burns.

"The teacher told me that he'd performed this experiment dozens of times in his career and never had a problem with it, but something went wrong, horribly wrong this time,” Dr. Johns told NewsChannel 9.

The teacher was holding a jar of methanol when fumes ignited; it created a flash fire, burning the students nearby.

Rescuers found one young girl burned from the waist up. Another child's eyebrows and lashes were singed by the heat, even though she was wearing goggles.

"Her collar had obviously started on fire and it had burned her nape and the back of her back pretty significantly,” Dr. Johns continued.

The Manhattan Fire Department responded Wednesday at approximately 11 a.m. to reports of a small lab fire in Ward Hall at Kansas State University.
Officials said a chemical caught fire in one of the building's labs, but that lab workers had extinguished it before firefighters arrived. At press time, officials said they were unsure how the fire started. 

A stubborn Monday-morning industrial fire involving magnesium shavings forced nearby businesses in the 2400 block of Southeast 10th Avenue to evacuate as a precaution, Portland Fire & Rescue reported.  

Firefighters arrived at Oregon Engraving & Rubber Plates, 2415 S.E. 10th Avenue, and attacked with dry chemical and CO2 extinguishers.  

The fire was tough to extinguish because it involved magnesium shavings and plates, firefighters said.  A Hazardous Materials Response Team was called to the scene. Smoke from the shavings could cause problems if inhaled, firefighters said. Neighboring businesses were evacuated, and pedestrians on the street were told to move.

A chemical spill closed Highway 41 near Fish Camp on Sunday evening, and hazardous materials crews were headed to Yosemite National Park to clean it up, the California Highway Patrol said.

The spill occurred just before 5 p.m. when a tractor trailer started spilling 25-pound bags of powdered sulfur while driving toward Yosemite, CHP officer Doug Corbett said. In total, 600 bags of sulfur were spilled on the road.

The sulfur sparked a number of small fires on and next to the road, Corbett said.

All of the fires were extinguished, he said, but the highway remained closed Sunday night. Yosemite National Park also closed its Highway 41 gate, the CHP dispatch log said.

Corbett said that agencies involved in the cleanup hoped to have the roadway cleared of all of the sulfur before noon today.

A BACKYARD father and son chemical experiment has backfired, with the teenage boy left with serious burns to his hands.

The 14-year-old and his father were trying to recreate tests the boy had learnt in the school science laboratory in the garden of their Springhall Pde home in Pascoe Vale South.

But the chemicals exploded just before noon and the boy suffered full thickness burns to both hands.

The police, MFB and paramedics were called to the home, with the MFB’s scientific officer called to advise on the handling and disposal of the volatile chemicals.

Magnesium, one of the main chemicals they had been playing with, reacts explosively with other agents and the intense fire it creates cannot be extinguished with water.

The boy was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital burns unit in a serious condition.

A police spokeswoman said it was not a criminal matter and police would not be investigating.

AHMEDABAD: Wastes stored in an open area inside Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) campus sparked off fire on Wednesday afternoon. However, no casualty or injury was reported in the incident.

The laboratory wastes of the high security establishment under the Department of Space includes various types of chemicals including inflammable chemicals, chemical containers, boxes and other substances. As a fire suddenly broke out around 12pm, the officials of the laboratory immediately alerted the fire department.

It took the fire tenders more than an hour to douse the fire and bring the situation under control at PRL. "We had a fire fighter vehicle and two water tankers at the place. We had to empty the water from both the tankers in controlling the fire," said additional chief fire officer Rajesh Bhatt.

As the fire officials were busy tackling the situation, staffs and officials of PRL gathered into a crowd to watch the situation. "The wastes have been lying there since a long time and should have been disposed of earlier," said one of the officials who did not wish to disclose his identity.

"We are unable to ascertain the cause of the fire as of now. There was no electrical wiring around the place which eliminated the possibility of short-circuit being the cause of fire. We noticed lots of scraps, wooden furniture and containers at the place," said Bhatt.

La Salle Fire Department was called to the Carus Chemical plant inLa Salle at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday.

“They were unloading a product and there was an issue with a hose,” said fire chief Andy Bacidore. “Some of it fell on some combustibles and started smoldering.”

The chief estimated a small section of roof, about one square foot, was smoldering when firefighters arrived.

“We just needed to make sure there wasn’t any fire in the hose they were using to fill, and that there wasn’t anything burning in the truck,” Bacidore said.

Firefighters doused the small area and peeled back part of the roof to make sure nothing was burning underneath.

Peru firefighters also responded, through the departments’ auto aid agreement. Firefighters cleared the scene at about 3:20 p.m.

The demolition of the former Canterbury Brewery had to be suspended on Wednesday after a small chemical fire.
The fire was caused by chemicals being taken from the site mixing with nitrous oxide in the bottom of the tank being used to transport the waste.
Workers at the site were evacuated while the fire was brought under control.

A small chemical fire April 13 forced the temporary evacuation of CK Enterprises, 1204 S.W. Jefferson St.

The Lee’s Summit Fire Department responded at 1:23 p.m. to the business, where occupants had called 911 to report a fire involving a chemical product in a warehouse.

When firefighters arrived, light smoke was visible from the back of the business and all employees had been evacuated.

Plant staff provided information on the burning product to firefighters, who went inside the building and found the smoldering remains of several buckets containing a powdered cleaning product.

The heat from the initial fire activated one fire sprinkler head over the area. The sprinkler system contained the fire to the buckets of the chemical product and some nearby boxes. Firefighters completed extinguishment of the fire and moved the debris outside of the building. Crews then shut off the sprinkler head and assisted with smoke removal while assessing for any additional hazards.

The incident was under control by 2:24 p.m., with damage contained to the buckets containing the chemcial product and to nearby equipment and boxes, which sustained minor damage.

The cause of the fire was determined to be a chemical reaction of two materials being used to develop a new cleaning product.

After completion of smoke removal and air monitoring, the business was able to be reoccupied.

MAPLETON —
A fire Friday night at a chemical manufacturer sent three firefighters to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Timber Hollis Fire Chief Guadalupe Arteaga said firefighters were dispatched a little after 8 p.m. on reports of a medium-sized fire at Lonza Inc. Within 30 minutes, Arteaga said firefighters were able to get the fire under control with the help of fire brigade personnel from Lonza’s emergency response team.

Two firefighters from Timber Hollis and one member of Lonza’s team were transported by ambulance to a local hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Units from the Peoria County Sheriff’s Department and Glasford Police Department were on scene to assist in the event that traffic had to be shut down on Route 24, but no hazardous materials or other airborne agents were released into the air as a result of the fire.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips said Friday it put out a small fire on a sulfur unit at its 120,200-barrel-per-day refinery in Rodeo, California.

The fire started at about 4.00 a.m. EDT and was extinguished within a few minutes, company spokesman Rich Johnson said. There were no injuries.

"Refinery operations are otherwise routine at this time," he added.

The Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs, which was monitoring the incident, said no chemicals were detected off site.

MIDDLETOWN — The spontaneous combustion of cleaning rags stored improperly caused a fire that left an estimated $2.5 million in damages to Midwest Switchgear Services late last month.
Middletown Fire Marshal Bob Hess has ruled the fire accidental due to the combustion of the “poorly discarded cleaning rags stored in an improper container close to a table storing ignitable liquids” at the facility at 4014 Tytus Ave., according to a release.
Fire crews had a crane late last week remove the roof to sift through the debris left by the fire.

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines—A wayward chemical tanker whose driver had fallen asleep sideswiped three vehicles before finally crashing into a row of houses, causing a brief fire in Dasmariñas City in Cavite early Tuesday, police said.
According to Superintendent Ulysses Cruz, Dasmariñas police chief, the driver of the tanker lost control of the vehicle, which sideswiped another truck, a car and a van, all of which were at the Pala-pala junction and all headed towards Tagaytay City, at around 1:30 a.m.
The tanker stopped when it hit three houses on the side of the road. A fire broke out but firefighters were able to put it out after around 30 minutes.
The ten-wheel tanker, which police said belonged to the Absolute Chemicals Inc., carried food-grade alcohol used in the manufacture of liquor.

Cayce Department of Public Safety crews responded to a fire at a steel plant Thursday morning.
Several aluminum-manganese alloy briquettes caught fire Friday morning at a Commercial Metal Co. warehouse off 12th Street Extension before noon, said the company’s Jeff Adams.
At least one firetruck responded to put out the blaze. No one was injured in the incident, and crews were cleaning the area up by 1 p.m. It is unknown how the fire started, Adams said.

A fire at a closed metal works plant in Ft. Wayne, IN sent a column of black and grey smoke skyward to be seen for miles. No homes were evacuated on the city’s east side. The defunct plant has been undergoing a costly cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater. Plans, which were approved in 2010 after a more than four-year process, called for the removal of contaminated soil from seven areas on the plant property. 


Also, wells were to be dug to draw out and treat the groundwater, and to draw vapors from the soil. Despite this history of environmental problems and the plant’s past use of hazardous chemicals, city fire marshal said evacuations of nearby homes were not necessary. A hazardous materials crew was monitoring air quality downwind of the fire, and the city water department tested the runoff created by the fire department’s hoses. 

Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions reported a small fire at its hazardous materials recycling facility in Menomonee Falls Wednesday morning.
A flammable and corrosive liquid ignited while a sample was being taken from a single drum container, facility manager Joe Baumann said.
The fire was contained to the individual drum and a small area around it. No other hazardous materials were involved, he said.
The fire and was fully extinguished about 15 minutes after it broke out, Baumann added.
No injuries were sustained as a result of this small fire, although an employee was evaluated at a local hospital and released.

PORT ANGELES — A Westport Shipyard building was briefly evacuated Wednesday morning because of a small chemical spill and fire.

Westport employees extinguished the fire and cleaned up the spill of chemicals used in making fiberglass at the shipyard at 337 Marine Drive, said Ken Dubuc, Port Angeles assistant fire chief and city fire marshal.

...At about 9:15 a.m., Westport employees noticed flames with smoke coming from a machine that mixes fiberglass resin with a catalyst, Fire Chief Dan ­McKeen said in a statement.

An employee activated a fire alarm, initiating an evacuation of the building, and trained Westport responders extinguished the fire with portable fire extinguishers, he said.

BEND, Ore. -- Bend Research employees were evacuated and fire crews were called in when a chemical drum with a carbon filter ignited Tuesday afternoon, but workers used a fire extinguisher to contain the blaze, fire officials said.
Firefighters responded to an alarm around 1:40 p.m. at the medical research firm at 63045 Corporate Place (off Empire Avenue), said Deputy Fire Marshal T.J. Johannsen.
Arriving crews found the building had been evacuated and workers were gathered away from the building on an adjoining parking lot, she said.
The fire began in a drum, about 55 gallons in size, located in a small room off the northwest corner of the building, easy to reach from an outside door, Johannsen said.
The filtering system of the drum uses activated carbon to filter various solutions, the fire official said. A highly flammable chemical was being processed by the system when the fire broke out, Johannsen explained.
Because the container malfunctioned, a pocket of concentrated air in the drum was able to reach an ignition source, she said.
The resulting fire was able to heat the drum, causing it to break down, but the blaze was contained in the area of origin, Johannsen said.
Workers used a fire extinguisher to slow the fire’s progress, keeping it contained before firefighters arrived, wearing breathing apparatus as a precaution.
Johannsen said the quick actions of workers who activated emergency plans had the building evacuated in minutes.
“This is a good reminder for everyone to never ignore an alarm,” Johannsen said in a news release. “Always take smoke and the alarms seriously. They may one day save your life.”PrintEmail


Copyright 2012 KTVZ. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A small chemical fire inside a Wise Alloys plant injured four people Tuesday afternoon.

Sandra Scarbrough, senior vice president for human resources at Wise Alloys, said the fire was in the coating line area of the plant.

“We had four people, who were contract workers and not Wise employees, doing routine maintenance in the coating line area,” Scarbrough said. “All four were injured.”

Emergency crews at the scene said three of the workers were taken to Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, where they were being treated for minor burns. A fourth worker was flown to UAB Hospital’s burn center.

Officials said the man flown to UAB could have sustained inhalation injuries. Medical personnel at the scene said the man was talking and conscious before the flight to Birmingham.

The accident was reported at 1:54 p.m. to Colbert 911.

The Muscle Shoals Fire Department was called to Wise, along with Keller EMS and the Colbert Emergency Management Agency.

The Colbert County Hazmat unit was not called into action, officials said.

EMA officials said the fire involved the chemical MEK (methyl ethyl keytone), which is basically paint thinner.

“Apparently it was a quick flash fire that could have come from a spark that hit the chemical,” Muscle Shoals Fire Marshal Donald Ray Coons said.

Seven Prescott Valley students and staff were taken to Yavapai Regional Medical Center Monday morning after a chemical smell apparently sickened them and led to a partial evacuation.

Students were evacuated Monday morning from Prescott Valley Charter School after students and staff smelled a "strong odor in the boys' bathroom," said Central Yavapai Fire Capt. Rick Chase, acting fire marshal.

At 8:45 a.m., firefighters from Central Yavapai Fire District and Prescott Fire, Prescott Valley Police and Life Line Ambulance responded to a call about a chemical odor at the school in the 9500 block of E. Lorna Lane.

As the hazardous materials team used their monitors to determine there were no chemicals present and that oxygen levels were all right, the students were moved to another school building, Chase said.

Crews douse Lakeland blaze
Updated: Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 5:47 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 5:47 PM EDT

LAKELAND - A fire in Polk County sent black smoke billowing into the air this afternoon before firefighters got the flames under control.

FIRE crews attended a fire at a Netherton laboratory yesterday.

Crews from Tipton, Cradley Heath and Smethwick attended the fire in the first floor lab at Exova UK Ltd in Halesowen Road, shortly before 5.30pm.

The fire had broken out inside the ventilation extraction unit, with 10 per cent of the two-storey building engulfed in flames.

Firefighters wore chemical protection suits and gloves to put out the flames because of the presence of laboratory gases.

Police, West Midlands Ambulance Service and Environmental officers were also in attendance at the premises, which is one of the world’s leading laboratories in the testing of pipeline materials for the oil and gas industry.

AHMEDABAD: City reported three major fire incidents on Sunday afternoon. In the first incident, an AMC waste disposal site in Gyaspur village in the outskirts of the city caught fire on Sunday evening after a dumper rammed into a stationary electric pole. Three fire fighters and two tankers of Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AEFS) doused flames. AFES officials also attended fire calls from Odhav and Sarkhej-Bavla highway.

The officials said fire at Gyaspur was a major operation as they had to ensure that the fire does not spread in the highly inflammable heaps of waste. Another major operation was carried out in Odhav near Takshshila Society where nearby chemical units had disposed of their chemical waste near residential area and set it on fire.

"Nearby residents called us up after the burning chemical spread a stench in the area along with lot of smoke and fumes that caused eye and nose irritation. We sent six vehicles including fire fighters and tankers to control fire," said AFES officials.

A battery acid spill this morning resulted in fire crews being called to a generator room that provides power to Joint Communications and the Columbia Police Department.

Shortly after 8 a.m., firefighters responded to a report of smoke coming from the generator room at 17 N. Seventh St. The generator, which provides backup power for police and Joint Communications, failed to start during a routine test, according to a Columbia Fire Department news release. Fire crews found a battery next to the generator had failed and leaked battery acid on nearby equipment. A hazardous-materials team cleaned up the area and removed items requiring decontamination.

Two city employees who were exposed to smoke and fumes were being medically evaluated, the news release said. A cause of the battery's failure had not been determined this morning, and a damage estimate was not yet available.

A fire that threw up plumes of smoke and leveled a small office building Wedesday on the eastern edge of the Tacoma Tideflats might have been caused by a can of paint that caught fire, spreading flames to adjacent areas.

The blaze at 4011 E. 11th St. near the Hylebos Bridge drew a dozen fire vehicles and nearly three dozen firefighters who extinguished flames that destroyed the office building and damaged an attached, two-story wooden warehouse.

No one was injured in the fire, which caused about $190,000 in damage to the 5,119-square-foot building.

Cause of the fire still was under investigation Wednesday night. Some workers at the site said a can of paint had caught fire and ignited areas of the wooden structure.

VILLAGERS in Annesley Woodhouse were told to stay in their homes for several hours after a large blaze involving a chemical-filled container.

The fire started at the Collins Earthworks firm on an industrial estate off Park Lane, Kirkby on Friday March 23.

A tanker containing calcium carbonate (quicklime) is thought to have overheated and caught fire.

Residents were told to keep their windows and doors shut until lunchtime on Saturday March 24 because of fears surrounding fumes from the blaze.

A section of the MI between junction 27 at Annesley and junction 28 at Mansfield was closed from 5.30 pm last Friday, causing chaos during the rush hour. The road re-opened at 8.15 pm.

OREM -- A comb of black smoke arched above Utah County early Thursday afternoon after a chemical fire burst out at an Orem fuel company.

The fire started around 12:36 p.m. at the cinder block warehouse occupied by 801 Racing. Orem fire inspector Casy Vorwaller said the company makes Ferox fuel additives designed to increase a vehicle’s mileage. Workers were pumping fuel Thursday, Vorwaller said, when malfunctioning equipment sprayed flammable liquid on a hot pump. The liquid then ignited.

“Once a flammable liquid goes, it goes fast,” Vorwaller added.

Crews from Orem and Provo responded to the blaze and had it under control quickly. Vorwaller said firefighters fought offensively, meaning they were able to get inside the building to extinguish the flames. Damage to the building was limited due to its cinder block construction, Vorwaller said, though the fire did spread to the wooden roof and rafters.

Pardubice, East Bohemia, March 29 (CTK) - The extensive fire that burst out in the Synthesia chemical plant complex early this morning fortunately injured no one but it caused an estimated damage worth up to 25 million crowns, local firefighters and police spokespersons told CTK.

The fire started around 4:00 in consequence of an accident in the premises belonging to Rekla, a company that handles mineral oils and is seated in the Synthesia complex.

Fifteen firefighter units, professional and voluntary, tackled the fire and its aftermath for about three hours, Synthesia spokeswoman Jaroslava Dolezalova told CTK.

The police and firemen will now start enquiring into the cause of the accident.

The fire injured no one, nor did it endanger the environment, Dolezalova said.

The firefighters originally said poisonous substances had leaked in the air and called on the residents of Pardubice, the regional centre with a population of 90,000, not to open the windows and not to leave their homes unless urgently necessary.

Dismissing the information, Dolezalova said expert measurements have not registered any leak of poisonous fumes.

The fire started at an oil processing line and spread to two halls that serve as oils store, causing several explosions and destroying two lorries, said Vendula Horakova, regional fire squad's spokeswoman.

LIFE returned to normal for hundreds of Derbyshire residents on Saturday after smoke from a chemical fire had prompted expert advice to stay indoors.

The fire broke out in a container of calcium oxide – more commonly known as quick lime – at a factory in Kirkby-in-Ashfield at 5.20pm on Friday and smoke spread across the border during the evening.

Derbyshire police warned people in Amber Valley, including Ripley, Alfreton, South Normanton, Codnor, Heanor and Pinxton to keep doors and windows closed as a precaution.

At the height of the blaze, the M1 in both directions between junction 26 and 28, was closed due to visibility problems and health risks.

A Derbyshire police spokesman said: "Nottinghamshire police and the fire service said we could stand down from the incident by 4.20am on Saturday. We were advised the smoke could cause skin irritation, although the risk was 'very low'."

Two workers were injured at the Air Products plant in Luling Monday morning after company officials say a hydrogen gas release sparked a fire at the St. Charles Parish facility shortly before noon.
St. Charles Parish Emergency Operation officials say the fire and chemical release were contained on-site and did not pose a threat to the public.
The hydrogen gas was released around 11:40 a.m. and residents reported hearing a loud noise, parish officials said.
The hydrogen production facility, which is located near Monsanto, produces industrial gas and chemicals. A spokesman for Air Products said the release occurred during the start up of a hydrogen off-gas plant, which purifies industrial gases containing hydrogen.
That plant was shutdown, company spokesman Art George said.

A weekend fire at 901 Richwood Road No. 2 in Monroe has prompted a Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality investigation.

The fire was Saturday at the old Chauvin chemical plant. A burning tanker contained a dark fluid. After Monroe firefighters controlled the fire, representatives from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality responded to the scene.

DEQ spokesman Rodney Mallett said Monday the incident remains under investigation.

Mallett said the site was once an ink processing plant. All containers had been removed from the building, which was later used as a storage area for paper. The containers that were removed were being cut into scrap metal on Saturday, but inside some of those containers, there was sludged ink, Mallett explained.

This past weekend, workers were cutting the tanks, scraping the sludge out and then cutting the rest of the tank for scrap, but the sludge material in some of the containers at the plant may have caught on fire, Mallett said.

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.

The three-story Faculty of Sciences building of the University of Lagos went up in flames in the early hours of Tuesday morning, destroying the Mathematics and Physics departments on the second and third floors, media reports confirmed.

No lives were lost in the fire incident, which started at about 6 a.m., but academic materials, furnishings and personal belongings were lost in the fire.

Fire fighters from UNILAG’s Fire Service, the Federal Fire Service, Lagos State Fire Service and the Union Bank of Nigeria Fire and Rescue Unit combated the fire and put it out at about 9:55 a.m.

Students and lecturers were seen at the fire site desperately trying to salvage their documents and belongings from being destroyed by the fire.

REEDSBURG — A chemical fire in a Reedsburg Area High School chemistry class injured three students and a teacher Monday.
The teacher and two of the students were transported to Reedsburg Area Medical Center with minor injuries, Reedsburg Ambulance Director Josh Kowalke said.
One of the students and the teacher then were taken to the University of Wisconsin Burn Center for further treatment.
Two of the students were back in school Tuesday, Principal Rob Taylor said. The teacher is at home recovering and one student is still in Madison. Officials would not confirm the name of the students or the teacher, but there is only one Chemistry II teacher, Corinne Fish, according to the district’s website.
Taylor said the experiment that caused the fire is one that has been done “literally hundreds of times” at the school over the years.
“It’s an experiment with salt and methanol that makes different-colored flames,” Taylor said. “For some reason, this time it caused a bigger flash than usual.”
Taylor said a student’s sweater caught fire, as did the teacher’s lab coat. Several students in the class called 911 while others contacted the front office. The school’s emergency response team, including associate principal Matt Terry and assistant principal Gary Syftestad, responded immediately.
“The team performed exactly like they should have,” Taylor said. “The girl dropped and rolled and then the teacher unselfishly put out the fire on the young lady while her own arm was still on fire.”
Each science lab is equipped with an emergency shower, fire extinguisher and fire blankets, all of which were used to help the teacher and students.

EAST VALLEY, Wash. -- A quick response limited damage from a propane tank fire at All American Propane on South Keys Road on Monday morning, firefighters say.

Chief George Spencer of the East Valley Fire Department said firefighters arrived within just a few minutes of the 8:49 a.m. alarm and were able to stop the fire from spreading from a shop where it was concentrated. Firefighters protected an adjacent storage building as well as large, nearby propane tanks.

Spencer said one worker was taken to a city hospital by private vehicle after suffering cold thermal burns from coming in contact with the propane, which converts to a liquid when frozen. More information was not available about his condition but the injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

Spencer said the 500-gallon tank that started the fire was being moved on a forklift at the time of the incident, which caused black smoke to billow from the area.

Toll Tasmania has taken back control of its transport yard on Hobart's waterfront after a $1 million fire this morning.

The blaze broke out in a warehouse, igniting shipping containers filled with chemicals and foam.

Toxic fumes forced the evacuation of more than six-hundred people.

Some workers were treated at the scene after inhaling the potentially toxic fumes.

The blaze engulfed a shed, several chemical-filled shipping containers and two forklifts.

The Fire Service estimates the blaze has caused $1.2 million damage.

Fire officer Stuart Males says the fire was started by a worker who was using a heat torch near pallets wrapped in plastic.

"It would appear that they used heat perhaps in the form of a blow torch type thing to actually undertake the shrinking process of the packaging," he said.

"Somehow that has caused a spark to ignite some of the material that was being packed."

During seventh period on Friday, March 16, only a few minutes before school was over, the fire alarm was triggered by a student in Dr. Leslie Hart’s chemistry class. The class was performing a series of chemical reaction labs, and the student ignited too much magnesium in a bunsen burner. “I saw it light out of the corner of my eye, and turned around to see a blazing light [coming from one of the lab stations],” said sophomore Max McQuaid.

Moments after igniting the magnesium, Dr. Hart had the student put it out. “A couple seconds after, the fire alarm started going off.” said sophomore Paul Fuchs. Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt, and the alarm was shut off soon after that.

SPARTA — Sussex County Technical School was closed Thursday and will remain closed today after a Wednesday night fire that severely damaged a science classroom, police said.

The township Police Communications Center received a fire alarm from the high school at 8:35 p.m., according to a news release from the police department, which said the alarm was activated by smoke detectors.

Heavy smoke
A janitor reported a heavy smoke condition on the second floor of the building as Sparta firefighters arrived at 8:40 p.m. and entered the building.

On the second floor, a biology, chemistry, environmental lab was filled with thick smoke and flames coming from the base of one of the work tables, police said.

The fire quickly was extinguished and the classroom was ventilated though it sustained heavy fire, smoke and water damage. An adjoining classroom also sustained heavy smoke and water damage, police said.

There were no injuries reported.

The cause of the fire was determined to be “nonsuspicious” after an investigation was conducted by the State Police Arson Unit, Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office, Sparta Detective Terrence Mulligan and Sussex County Fire Marshal Michael Alvarez.

Source of fire
The fire appears to have started in a plastic garbage can after a chemical reaction occurred inside the container, police said.

The specific types of chemicals involved in the fire still are being determined, but it appeared that some accidentally were discarded in the can. Those chemicals have the potential to be volatile when mixed.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Los Alamos National Laboratory called out its hazmat and emergency response team Wednesday following a chemical reaction at one of the lab's technical areas.

Lab officials say there was a small chemical reaction in a bottle that contained a sample of liquid that had been drawn from a 60-year-old cylinder. The material flared briefly when exposed to air.

The lab says no one was injured or exposed to any hazardous chemicals.

As a precaution, Los Alamos police temporarily closed the area. One section of road closest to the technical area remained closed Wednesday afternoon.

A lab subcontractor was sampling the old cylinders in a metal enclosure when the incident happened just before noon.

The cylinders were excavated last year from a World War II-era landfill on lab property so that they could be characterized and properly disposed of.

(TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH) - An East Texas man is recovering from burns to his face and body after an accidental chemical fire about 8:20 Monday night on County Road 4142.

The victim, whose name was not released, was using methanol in an attempt to rekindle a fire thought to have burned out, Smith County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Tony Dana said.
"(He) had methanol in a bucket and was trying to demonstrate how to light a fire with methanol," Dana said. "He lit it (and) the fire jumped from the bucket and caught himself on fire."

MARTIN COUNTY - Fire crews have contained a huge fire that was burning at a gas plant in Martin County.

The fire started at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon at the WTG Gas Processing Plant on the Sale Ranch in Martin County.

The gas processing plant had liquid propane on site and that is what officials believe was burning during the fire.

Fire crews sprayed fire retardant material to contain the fire.

BELLEVUE, OHIO: Schools are closed in a northern Ohio city where a fire at a magnesium plant has officials warning residents to stay indoors to avoid possible respiratory problems.

The Morning Journal in Lorain reports a firefighter tells the newspaper trailers holding magnesium caught fire Tuesday morning at MagReTech Inc. in Bellevue.

As a precaution, police are asking people to stay inside with windows closed and heating or cooling systems turned off.

The company refines and recycles of magnesium and supplies magnesium alloys for die-casting.

MINEOLA — Fire investigators are working to discover what caused a long-time Mineola business to burn to the ground Sunday night.

Crews from Mineola, Quitman, Hainesville and Lindale fire departments were called to Pearce Petroleum Products, 302 S. Johnson St., behind Mineola's train museum, shortly before 8 p.m., Mineola Fire Department spokesman Steve Finley said.

Business owners were inside on the company grounds when the fire broke out and called emergency responders, he said. Finley said in the initial 911 calls, some reports of an explosion were made.

The fire was largely extinguished about an hour after it started, and Finely said an independent hazardous materials team was called in. A large amount of a petroleum product had poured out onto the company grounds and into storm drains, Finley said.

“We have some hazardous material response equipment within the department,” he said, adding that the area and size of the spill was too large for just the fire departments to handle.
Finley said no injuries were reported in the fire.

Investigators are looking for suspects connected to a methamphetamine lab that may have caused the fire on Garcon Point that closed a section of Interstate 10 earlier this week.

Agents from the Florida Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement scoured the scene of the fire's origin and found evidence linked to the one-pot — or "shake and bake" — method of making meth, said Joe Zwierzchowski, wildfire mitigation specialist with the Florida Forest Service.

Prompt response and training paid off for firefighters Friday responding to a fire at St. Joseph Plastics on Fifth Avenue.
Plastic was burning in a specialized machine at the north St. Joseph plant, said Russell Moore, a battalion chief with the St. Joseph Fire Department.
“We turned the corner on Fifth Avenue and there was a huge cloud over St. Joseph Plastics,” said Rick Caton, captain of Engine 12.
The engine, located just two blocks away, was first on the scene.
Because of the chemical compounds in plastics, firefighters couldn’t use water and their large pressurized hoses.
For this type of fire, dry chemicals were the way to gain control, Mr. Moore said. At that point, water could have exacerbated the problem, he said.

March 7 (Reuters) - A small fire broke that out early Wednesday morning at Tesoro Corp's 166,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Martinez, California, refinery was quickly extinguished as the facility continued the restart of production units after a two-month overhaul, company and public officials said.

The small fire on a unit broke out shortly before midnight Pacific time (0800 GMT), a Tesoro spokeswoman said in a statement.

"The fire was immediately extinguished," said Tesoro spokeswoman Tina Barbee. "There were no injuries and no damage to equipment. This event did not have any impact on our ability to meet regional contractual product supply commitments."

NEW YORK –  A fire Tuesday at Valero Energy Corp.'s (VLO) oil refinery in Memphis, Tenn., has injured three people, according to a local NBC television news affiliate report.

"The Memphis fire department is on the scene," the 4:00 p.m. CST report said.

The Memphis Commercial-Appeal newspaper said on its website that two of the three injured suffered burns over 90 percent of their bodies.

KETTERING, Ohio — A chemical spill that occurred during research at the National Composite Center on Tuesday night led to an alcohol-based fire in one of the laboratories on the center’s campus.
Fire crews were dispatched at about 6:30 p.m. to the center in the Kettering Business Park, 2000 Composite Drive, on a report of a fire.
Three employees were running an experiment when the spill occurred, said Tom Butts, shift commander, Kettering Fire Department.
“They were doing research unknown to us,” Butts said, and an estimated 20 gallons of isopropanol (“high based 100 percent rubbing alcohol”) that spilled sought out an electric ignition source and caught fire.
The alcohol was “consumed in the fire,” Butts said. The building's suppression system put out the fire.

R. Madina of Pudunagar A block in Vyasarpadi termed Tuesday morning ‘frantic.' The reason – the homemaker and hundreds of other residents, including children in the locality, had to run for their lives following a scare that a fuel station on fire nearby was going to explode.

“This is the fifth time that there is a fire in the petrol bunk. We are scared and want the bunk to be shifted,” said Ms. Madina, who along with other residents, staged a road roko outside Prema Service Station, an IOC fuel station on MKB Nagar Main Road in Vyasarpadi. They demanded its immediate closure.

Police said, a dispensing unit in the bunk which also has an auto LPG dispensing facility, caught fire at 7 a.m. “Some workers shouted out to all residents to flee. A chemical stench emanated, and woman, children and elders from Pudunagar A block and Salaima Nagar located behind the bunk, ran to safety,” said K. Velavan, a resident.

FRONT ROYAL -- A fire at Toray Plastics Factory Saturday night caused significant damage, county fire officials said.

At about 9:50 p.m., firemen were dispatched to an alarm at 500 Toray Drive in Front Royal, Fire Marshal Gerry Maiatico said.

The official cause of the fire is unknown and currently under investigation. Maiatico said it appears the fire started because of a mechanical malfunction.

"Officially it looks like an accidental fire, nothing suspicious," he said.

The original fire -- or flash fire -- had been extinguished by indoor sprinklers by the time firemen arrived on the scene. However, Maiatico said it took about an hour to extinguish various hot spots that had ignited as a result of the original blaze.

"The materials that were involved and the location of the fire in the industrial plant posed several unique challenges to our staff," he said.

Maiatico said that because of a number of the industrial facility's trade secrets, he cannot release a lot of information about the type of equipment that caught fire, or the exact location.

CALGARY (MarketWatch) -- The Syncrude oil-sands project in northeastern Alberta is operating at reduced capacity after a fire at its refinery, a spokeswoman for the project's largest stakeholder said Monday.

A fire late Friday at one of three coking units at the Syncrude project will reduce Syncrude's production to two-thirds of its normal capacity of 350,000 barrels of oil a day, said Siren Fisekci, a spokeswoman for Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. .

There is no word yet on when the coker will be restarted, or what caused the damage, Fisekci said.

A chemical storage refrigerator may have caused a fire on the fourth floor of Welch Hall’s west wing Thursday morning, officials said.

The fire started at about 4 a.m. and caused minimal damage. The UT Police Department and Austin Fire Department arrived at the scene where the investigators ruled the cause of the fire to be undetermined at the time, said Garland Waldrop, UT fire marshal. Fire officials are still investigating the exact source of the fire.

“There was a minimal amount of fire damage because the fire sprinklers in the lab contained the flames in the one room, but we had to remove the water from the sprinklers that ran down from the fourth floor to the basement,” Waldrop said.

The fourth floor of the west wing was closed off to students Thursday in order to repair the water damage, but will be accessible again on Friday. False alarm sirens alerted those in and around the building throughout the day, but did not signal danger.

Dennis Nolan, assistant director of biological and lab safety, said investigators do not know if it was the refrigerator that caused the fire or the chemicals inside it.

“From what I can tell, it doesn’t look like the refrigerator [alone] caused the fire, but it is still not conclusive,” Nolan said. “All labs in the building were notified of what the best practices are in order to prevent this from happening again.”  

A Tuesday evening fire in a storage unit at the corner of Washburn Way and Joe Wright Road caused property damage but no injuries.
A person was using an acetylene cutting torch to disassemble an old pickup truck for scrap metal, said Fire Marshal Scott Rice with Klamath County Fire District No. 1.
“The person inadvertently hit the brake line, which was still full of fluid,” Rice said. “Brake fluid is very volatile and there was no extinguisher on hand.”
The fire spread rapidly, and Rice said it essentially was allowed to “free burn” until the fire department arrived.
“The fire destroyed the unit it started in,” Rice said. “The units to each side had water damage, but no fire damage.”