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."

SKOWHEGAN -- One person was taken to a local hospital Sunday afternoon and several others were examined at the scene after a giant cloud of fire-suppression powder was released without warning at the Irving Circle K station on Madison Avenue, which is also U.S. Route 201.

The powerful plume, emitted from about 50 hoses installed in the roof of the fuel-pumping area, covered vehicles, people and the parking lot with a coating of white powder. The white-out obscured the busy station from view and briefly closed the road to motor vehicle traffic.

The cloud traveled to the Tractor Supply shopping center across the road, then dissipated.

Fire crews, police, emergency medical personnel and an ambulance from Redington-Fairview General Hospital were sent to the scene about 12:30 p.m.

There was no fire, and station managers were unwilling to comment on what might have happened.

Skowhegan Fire Chief Tom Keene said the chemical was a nontoxic compound that can cause mild eye and throat irritation but is not life threatening.

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.

A storeroom on the first floor of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) caught fire early on Sunday morning once again exposing glaring lapses in the state-run hospital’s blaze preparedness.

An unattended mangle of wires led to the short-circuit in the storeroom, which was stocked with inflammable material like broken doors and oxidising agents like bleaching powder, around 6am.

Hospital sources have pegged the loss — in terms of disinfectants, plastic buckets, drums, doors etc. — at Rs 8 lakh.

Though the affected room is right next to the tuberculosis OPD, the early morning incident on a no-rush Sunday prevented a mishap of greater proportions.

The RIMS morning guard who raised the alarm said the corridors had been blurred by dense smoke, a grim reminder of the tragedy at AMRI Hospitals in Calcutta where some 90 patients suffocated to death in December last year.

“I was coming out of the toilet on the ground floor when I noticed smoke on the first floor. Within no time, the corridor in front of me was engulfed by dense smoke. I alerted everyone,” he said. “Had it not been Sunday, there would have been a stampede at the OPD,” he added.

According to an eyewitness, hospital employees tried to battle the blaze with outdated gear, wasting an hour in the process. A fire tender arrived around 7.30am and doused the fire in half an hour.

“Two guards brought a fire extinguisher from near the director’s chamber (200 metres away). But the handheld equipment only aggravated the fire,” the witness said.

Fire officials said the same was possible if the chemical in the extinguisher had expired. Further probe revealed that the fire extinguisher used by the guards had expired two years ago and the RIMS management had never bothered to refill the chemical solution.

KADAPA: The prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Hospital here has poor safety measures despite experiencing two fire mishaps since it inception.
RIMS was established by former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2006 with the objective of providing better medical services and health care for the people of Kadapa district.
Several crores of rupees were spent on providing infrastructure facilities at RIMS, but little attention is paid to safety aspects. The lack of No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire services department only indicates that the building has not complied with the National Building Code. According to district fire officer K Jaganmohan Reddy, RIMS authorities have not even sought the NOC.
There are fire extinguishers at every ward, but they are not functional. The last time the fire extinguishers with dry chemical powder were refilled was in 2007 though it is mandatory to do it once in one year. In case of fire extinguishers with carbon-di-oxide, they need to be checked from time to time. However, it is not being done.

MADISONVILLE, KY (10/18/11) – The following is your weekly fire report provided by the Madisonville Fire Department (MFD).

On October 14 MFD received an alarm from Central Dispatch for a fire at the Kroger gas pumps at 240 Island Ford Road. Upon arrival, crew found one vehicle at the pump with no fire showing. Gas fumes ignited when the vehicle owner removed the gas cap and static discharge occurred from touching the vehicle. A dry chemical extinguisher was used by a store employee to extinguish the fire prior to M.F.D. arrival. The employee advised that the emergency gas pump deactivation switch was activated. The rear of the vehicle was checked for any additional hot spots, but none were found. No further action was taken and all units returned to station.

MERRIMACK – A chemical incident reported over the weekend has left Merrimack fire officials reconsidering response plans.
Early Saturday afternoon, Merrimack firefighters responded to the former BP gas station on Daniel Webster Highway, where the fire suppression system had activated, leaving the area covered in a powder substance.
In accordance with the town’s existing protocols, the firefighters washed the material, a dry chemical known as Monoammonium Phosphate, down a nearby storm drain. “The material data sheets indicate it’s not an environmental hazard,” Fire Chief Michael Currier said Tuesday.
No fire occurred, and department officials are investigating what caused the system to activate. But the incident caught the attention of neighbor Chuck Mower, a former selectman, who contacted town officials, fearing the chemicals could get into the local water system.
“I’m still stunned at their response,” Mower said Tuesday. “I can’t imagine why we’d be flushing hundreds and hundreds of pounds of suppression materials like that. … Who knows what kind of damage it can do?”

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Fire officials said the suspicious package that created a Hazmat situation at a UPS warehouse in Norfolk contained a fire extinguisher.

According to Capt. Mike Marsala with the Norfolk Fire Department , a small box discharged a white powdery substance around 6:40 a.m. as it was tumbling down the conveyer belt in the facility in the 3300 block of Croft Street.

Fire officials are now trying to figure out why one of the fire extinguishers went off.

The package was in the conveyer system 15 feet in the air. Norfolk Fire Department spokesman Harry Worley said the package had to be brought down so it could be evaluated by bomb technicians.

Emergency crews are cleaning up the scene at the Hess gas station at the intersection of the Arterial West and North Street where the emergency fire extinguishing system was triggered, dousing four vehicles and their occupants with flame suppressing chemicals.
An employee of the station said the extinguishers over the pumps were accidentally set off by a customer.
An Auburn fire truck was brought in to wash the chemical spray off the coated vehicles and the parking lot.

Customers parked at a Hess gas station on Highland Avenue Thursday morning got their cars showered with powder after a chemical fire extinguishing system was accidentally set off.

The incident occurred shortly after 9:00 a.m., with Needham Fire Department reportedly on the scene soon after. The station is located on Highland Avenue near the Needham/Newton town line. No injuries were being reported as of 11:00 a.m., and representatives from Hess were on the scene with about six customers whose vehicles were covered by the powder, a dry chemical similar to the type used in home fire extinguishers.

Cedar Rapids authorities say hot ashes from a charcoal chimney starter likely caused a house fire in Cedar Rapids on Sunday.

Emergency personnel responded to 1708 23rd Street NW on Sunday around 7:15 p.m. for reports of heavy black smoke coming from a garage. A fire extinguisher hanging on the wall where the fire started exploded during the fire, spreading dry chemical throughout the garage and possibly suppressing the flames.

Investigators say the damage was confined to the wall of the garage. The vehicles in the garage may have sustained minor smoke damage. There were no injuries.

Cedar Rapids Fire Department authorities urge residents that grilling materials should be completely cooled before storage and shouldn’t be placed next to combustible materials.

HACKETTSTOWN — Two Centenary College students complained of breathing difficulties early this morning after an unknown individual discharged a dry-chemical fire extinguisher in the campus's Anderson Hall, according to town police.
At 2:05 a.m., town police and the Hackettstown Fire Department responded to the college dormitory in reference to an activated fire alarm. When police arrived, students advised that there was smoke in the first floor hall. Through investigation it was determined that unknown individual(s) discharged a dry-chemical fire extinguisher in the hall.
There were two students who complained of difficulty breathing due to inhaling the dry chemical. One student was transported to the Hackettstown Regional Medical Center and the other refused medical treatment.

WEST HAVEN —  "Tens of thousands of gallons" of a flame-suppressing chemical foam is believed to have spread from a broken pipe fitting at Yale University's West Campus into the Oyster River, authorities said this morning.

The foam is not harmful to people, officials said, but fish die off has been reported.

The Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing the cleanup, which is the responsibility of Yale University, DEP spokesman Dwayne Gardner said. The environmental services firm McVac Environmental has been contracted by Yale to work on the river and is on scene today, Gardner and West Shore FIre Chief David Collins said.

The fire protection system is comprised of aqueous film-forming foam, a material that is 94 percent water and 6 percent butyl carbitol, West Shore Deputy Chief Patrick Pickering said. DEP officials were weighing today whether to allow this weekend's expected rain to clean up the foam, Gardner said.

LAKE PLACID - There was no fire, but the fire-suppression system at the Sunoco on Wilmington Road went off Monday afternoon, covering several vehicles at the gas pumps with the dry chemical fire-suppression agent.

Sunoco managers said the system malfunctioned.

The Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department responded at 12:47 p.m. with two trucks and 13 members. One child, who was in a vehicle at the gas pumps when the system activated, was checked by the Lake Placid Volunteer Ambulance Service but did not need to be transported to the hospital.

CARY – An emergency hazardous materials team was called to investigate suspicious material found in a mailbox in front of a Cary home Monday.
The substance in the mailbox was determined to be a harmless chemical from a fire extinguisher.
A Cary resident found the material in her mailbox at 55 Asbury Lane Monday afternoon. A Woodstock Fire Department hazardous materials team was asked to respond about 2:30 p.m., Cary Fire Department Lt. Tony Farina said.
The block near the home at 55 Asbury Lane briefly was closed to traffic as emergency crews investigated.

The threat was a chemical powder discharged from three fire extinguishers that Lifecare staff used to extinguish a fire that had broken out in a fire alarm panel, said Steve Irr, battalion chief. The fire itself was not a threat because it was immediately extinguished, but the chemical is a very fine, dusty powder that, once airborne, became a real threat to the residents, he said.