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.

David Rittenhouse Laboratory was evacuated around 12:45 p.m. Sunday due to reports of a small methane and hydrogen spill in the basement.

About 13 firetrucks from the Philadelphia Fire Department including a HAZMAT team arrived on scene. The team investigated and found no detectable leak, according to Division of Public Safety spokesperson Stef Karp. There were no injuries.

The incident was due to a malfunction in the building’s flammable gas alarm. As a precaution, the room’s gas bottles were shut down, Karp wrote in an email.

Nursing junior Meghan O’Neill was working in the multimedia center in the basement of the building when she was forced to evacuate. She said she didn’t hear an alarm in the building, but firefighters came in and told her to evacuate.

The trucks left at about 1:10 p.m., and Penn Police deemed it safe for people to return to the building.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Magnablend Chemical company for seven serious violations and and levied a $45,000 fine for last year’s explosion and fire at the company’s Waxahachie factory.

The report concludes a six month investigation, in which OSHA says workers at the plant were exposed to fire hazards by a ventilation system that was far inadequate for what the company was doing.


“Magnablend exposed its workers to fire hazards by failing to provide adequate ventilation that would have removed flammable hydrogen and other vapors,” said Jack Rector, OSHA’s area director in Fort Worth. “OSHA’s standards must be followed to prevent injuries and illnesses. It is fortunate that no one was injured.”

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.

KENNEBUNK — A chemical reaction led to a gas explosion at Corning Inc. last week, sending three people to the hospital.

Kennebunk Fire Chief Stephen Nichols said chemicals, including nitric acid, were mixed in a dispensing barrel in a waste room, giving off explosive hydrogen gas, on the night of Wednesday, March 14.

"Either an electric motor or a switch or something triggered it to ignite and caused the explosion," Nichols said. "The explosion, it burned up all the gas. It was a gas cloud and that was the end of it."

Three employees were transported to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, but were released without injury, Nichols said. The explosion happened around 9:30 p.m.

A hazardous materials team was brought in for clean-up, Nichols said. There was no residual fire from the explosion, and damage was confined to the waste room.

"It was just a matter of, unfortunately, something that shouldn't have been introduced that was introduced into the barrels," Nichols said.

KENNEBUNK — Cleanup crews are still working today to remove the remains of a chemical explosion that happened Wednesday night at Corning  Inc., an industrial products company on Alfred Road in Kennebunk.

Fire Chief Stephen Nichols said that chemicals, including nitric acid, that were mixed in a drum of disposed material gave off hydrogen gas, which is explosive. A spark, possibly from a light or a fan coming on, ignited the vapors and created an explosion around 9:30 p.m., he said.

The explosion caused minor damage to the building but blew materials around inside, he said. The building was evacuated and three people were taken to the hospital complaining of tightness in their throat, he said. They were evaluated and released, he said.

Other parts of the facility, which manufactures specialty glass and ceramic products for the communications and health care industries, remained open.

Chemical giant Orica says static electricity is the most likely cause of another fire from a stack at its Newcastle plant overnight.
Hydrogen gas is being vented from a stack at the plant as part of its start-up procedure, with the gas igniting for the second time in three days.
Lighting caused a fire from the stack on Sunday night.
Orica site manager Sean Winstone says there is no risk to the community or the environment.
He says the fire is now out, but there is an ongoing chance that the gas could ignite as the start-up process continues.
Just before 9:30pm (AEDT) residents were sent a text message from Orica saying gas discharge from the stack had reignited but the plant and community were safe.
Despite Orica's assurances, residents have told the ABC they still have concerns about the problem plague plant.

A bolt of lightning has caused a fire at the problem-plagued Orica chemical plant in the New South Wales Hunter.

Lightning struck a stack of the Kooragang Island ammonia plant that was venting hydrogen, shortly after 10:00pm on Sunday.

Representatives from Orica and the Environmental Protection Authority are at the scene trying to extinguish the blaze.

The plant was re-opened last week, after it was closed late last year when it leaked the carcinogen hexavalent chromium.

A power plant employee was burned when a hydrogen leak caught fire late Monday near southwest suburban Joliet.

Crews from the East Joliet Fire Protection District responded about 10:30 p.m. to the Midwest Generation facility, 1601 S. Patterson Rd., and found compressed hydrogen leaking from a trailer, Capt. Matt Skole said.

Firefighters were on the scene for nearly four hours as they stopped the leak and extinguished the blaze, he said.

One employee of the plant was burned and taken to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Skole said. The person’s condition was not known early Tuesday.

Businesses throughout the Pueblo Municipal Airport Industrial Park were evacuated Thursday evening after Pueblo firefighters were called to a leaking hydrogen tank at BF Goodrich.
 The fire department initially was called out at 5:48 p.m. on reports of a grass fire in the area, but when trucks arrived on scene it was discovered that a 10,000 gallon tank on the south side of the brake pad plant, located at 50 William White Blvd., was leaking.
 The tank held about 5,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen.
 Assistant Fire Chief Shawn Shelton said that one of the valves to the tank failed and was leaking.
 The hydrogen vaporized once it left the valve, but it is so combustible that it created an open flame beneath the tank as soon as it came into contact with organic material, Shelton said.

The Sylmar alternative-energy business destroyed by a thunderous explosion Tuesday lacked permits to handle hazardous materials and had close ties to a Simi Valley company where a similar blast killed a worker last year.

Off-duty firefighter Timothy B. Larson, whose brother died in the June 2010 blast, was critically injured Tuesday when a tank containing volatile hydrogen exploded at the company owned by his father. He was being treated after reportedly losing an arm and leg.

The explosion also critically injured consultant William Stehl, 66, scheduled to be tried in New York state next month on federal charges related to a green energy fraud scheme.

Stehl was also present at the Simi Valley explosion at Realm Industries. That company was also owned by the elder Timothy A. Larson, whose 28-year-old son Tyson was killed.

The fireless detonation at 4:20 p.m. Tuesday ripped the roof off the 7,400-square-foot Rainbow of Hope in Sylmar, throwing both men into an alley.

It also blew out its doors and windows, damaging cars and businesses next door and raining debris across an industrial park north of the 210 Freeway.

Firefighters say the blast at the alternative fuel business at 12349 Gladstone Ave. occurred as workers hovered by two pressurized, 8-foot tanks used to extract hydrogen from water.

"At the time, it looked like they were transferring hydrogen gas from one cylinder to another," said Erika Monterroza of Cal/OSHA, whose worker safety investigators joined local firefighters to probe through the 7,400-square-foot blast site.

t took three fire companies and a couple of hours to bring a hydrogen trailer fire under control at a Chester County chemical company, police said.

Residents evacuated from nearby homes, however, were not immediately allowed to return while fire officials evaluated the scene.

The fire at the Johnson Matthey Co. plant in West Whiteland Township, was reported at 10:31 a.m., said Patty Mains, a spokeswoman for the county's Department of Emergency Services.

West Whiteland Township Sgt. Martin Malloy said a supply line at the plant was damaged yesterday by a truck and was being repaired when the blaze, believed to be accidental, erupted.



A repairman was taken to Crozer Chester Medical Center for burns, said Malloy. His condition was not known.

Malloy said trucks bring what is termed a "12-pack," tubes of hydrogen on a trailer, to the plant and then return to get the trailer when the hydrogen has been used.

Production resumed Monday at Duferco Farrell Corp. after a tanker truck making a delivery there Sunday night caught fire, injuring two.

Mercer County emergency crews were called to the plant at 5 Roemer Blvd. in Farrell around 7 p.m.  An official at the scene said it happened after a driver with Air Liquide was delivering a hydrogen tank to the plant. When he attempted to hook it up, the tank caught fire.

Officials said it took nearly 12 hours to burn off the 6,000 gallons of the chemical.

The man driving the truck suffered cuts and burns to his face and was taken to a local hospital. Another Air Liquide employee was also injured and was taken to Akron Burn Center for treatment.

GALLATIN — Federal safety investigators said Wednesday that a “fire involving leaking hydrogen gas” occurred at the GKN/Hoeganaes Corp. plant Friday morning, fatally burning two workers and leaving a third in critical condition.

But the cause of the fire remains unknown, according to members of a team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigating the incident. The team arrived Saturday and has been looking into the incident since.

They also said they don’t know whether combustible iron dust blamed for two explosions at the plant earlier this year had a role in the latest incident. The first of those incidents, on Jan. 31, resulted in two other deaths.

A University of Iowa staff member who loaded balloons filled with hydrogen and a hydrogen-oxygen mix into a vehicle was injured Tuesday when the balloons apparently exploded.

According to the University of Iowa Police Department, Dale Stille filled eight balloons – four with hydrogen and four with a hydrogen/oxygen mix – and placed them into a Ford Explorer owned by the university. The vehicle was parked near the loading dock of Van Allen Hall.

Police said when Stille opened a side door, there was an explosion. He was originally taken to Mercy Hospital via private vehicle for injuries, which police said could be first- and second-degree burns. He was later transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics’ burn unit.

The cause of the explosion, believed to have occurred about 7:30 a.m., was not immediately explained.

The blast was not immediately reported to police, who responded to the scene at 8:21 a.m. after a passerby saw the vehicle and damaged caused by the explosion – which included a shattered windshield – and suspected a break-in occurred.

Police said witnesses told them Stille had intended to take the balloons to an off-campus location for an educational activity.

Stille is a coordinator for Hawk-Eyes on Science, an outreach program affiliated with the department of physics and astronomy. Stille puts on programs for school children doing scientific demonstrations, including exploding balloons filled with hydrogen and oxygen.

Bruce McAvoy, the university’s Fire Safety Coordinator, the Iowa City Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal’s office assisted in investigating the explosion.

An explosion caused by hydrogen gas in a University of Missouri biochemistry research lab on Monday injured four people and destroyed the laboratory, university and fire department officials report.

The blast occurred in the lab of biochemistry professor Judy D. Wall, who studies sulfate-reducing bacteria.

The injured researchers included one graduate student, two postdoctoral researchers, and a staff research scientist, says University of Missouri spokesperson Christian Basi. Three were treated at the hospital and released; the fourth was hospitalized and reported to be in good condition on Tuesday.

The gas, which is extremely flammable and can form explosive mixtures with air, was being used for an experiment when the explosion occurred, says Columbia, Mo., fire department investigator Brian Davison. Investigators have not yet determined whether the gas was ignited or exploded spontaneously, although they do believe the explosion was an accident, Davison says.

(CNN) -- An explosion that injured four people at a University of Missouri science lab Monday afternoon was caused by human error, authorities said.
Lab personnel failed to turn off a hydrogen tank during an experiment and the building concentration of gas eventually exploded, the Columbia Fire Department said after an initial investigation. The building's sprinkler system put out the fire.
"Glass and debris from the third floor Biochemistry Lab had rained down onto the sidewalk, courtyard and driveway to the building, fire officials said. "Seventeen third-story windows were blown out."
The injured were transported to University Hospital, officials said. Three of the victims had been released by late Monday. The fourth was being treated in the hospital's burn unit.
"The number of injuries was certainly reduced due to the campus being on summer break, with a significantly reduced number of people in and around this facility," fire officials said.