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.

Tragedy is often the impetus for change. 

By many accounts, the death of four Norwich firefighters during an explosion in 1962 had ripple effects that reverberated across the country —  leading to improved safety standards for first responders and major changes in the way hazardous materials are labeled, shipped and handled.

Today, vehicles carrying hazardous materials are required by federal law to have placards  — color-coded, diamond-shaped signs with numbers and symbols. In the event of an emergency, such as a fire, first responders need only consult a guidebook for general information about just how dangerous any cargo is.

 There was no such law in place on the afternoon of April 3, 1962, when Norwich firefighters responded to reports of a truck fire at the Van Tassel warehouse on Forest Street.

“This is the Van Tassel Leather Co. on Forest St. We have a truck on fire, loaded with explosives,” was the call to the fire department.

Thomas LaFreniere, 83, who was seriously injured in the explosion that was to come, said firefighters knew there were explosives on board, but not much else.

“The dispatcher said, ‘Be careful,’ ” LaFreniere said. “But our job is to extinguish the fire. When they’re running out, we’re running in.”

The subsequent explosion leveled parts of the warehouse and shattered glass windows for miles — and claimed the lives of four of the firefighters at the scene. There was an immediate outcry at the local and state levels for better regulations from the city and state after the investigation into the cause.

Norwich Fire Marshal Kenneth Scandariato said that in the 1960s, there were certain chemicals known to be volatile, but the type of response needed in a situation like Van Tassel was not well-understood.
“They were being classified from a compositional perspective, but not for safety,” Scandariato said. “There were very few training bulletins — procedures for fire departments to prepare for hazardous materials response.

“We didn’t have the equipment, the training or the organization we have today,”  he said. “Many of those things came from the Van Tassel tragedy and other incidents that began to raise attention and alarm.”

Major Carroll E. Shaw, the deputy state fire marshal in 1962, reported the load carried by the truck in question was organic peroxides —  a mix of benzoyl peroxide, methyl ethyl ketone peroxide and others shipped in wet and dry forms.

Shaw wrote that the load, was “extremely sensitive to shock, blows and impact,” and likely shifted during the 600-mile trip to Norwich from Buffalo, N.Y.

Ferndale Fire Chief Kevin Sullivan is warning residents and businesses about the potential dangers of improperly stored chemicals after an incident Monday that Sullivan says could have easily turned disastrous.

Ferndale firefighters responded to an odor complaint around 10 a.m. Monday at 1360 Hilton. It was discovered that a business there – Fermical, which specializes in the pharmaceutical industry and had been temporarily closed for about a year – had a leak in one of the chemical tubs it was storing there.

The chemicals – including ethyl acetate and methyl ethyl ketone – were being stored in 55-gallon drums that had suffered water damage and had begun to rust, causing a leak in one of the tubs, Sullivan said.

"When we got in the odor was at what we call lower explosive limit," Sullivan said. "With the right ignition source it could have blown into kingdom come."

HYDERABAD: Two daily-wage workers died in an explosion at a chemical unit in Amberpet on Thursday morning.

The two victims were identified as Venkata Lakshmi, 45, and Kalpana, 30, of Venkatapuram Colony, who were working at Nagamani Chemicals owned by B Nanda Gopal from Bapu Nagar in Amberpet. The incident took place at 11.30am when the two workers were mixing hydrogen peroxide, methyl ethyl ketone and sodium sulphate to produce a chemical substance used in the manufacturing of asbestos sheet moulds and coolants. The high intensity of the explosion damaged a portion of the chemical unit's roof and severely injured both Venkata Lakshmi and Kalpana.

"With critical burn injuries, Venkata Lakshmi died on the spot and Kalpana succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment at a nearby private hospital," Amberpet inspector A Srinivas said.

Police said that the chemical unit was an illegal one. Nanda Gopal, the owner of the unit, has been arrested and cases have been booked against him under section 304-A (Causing death due to rash or negligent act) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

TWO people have been taken to hospital and a whole workforce evacuated after a toxic chemical leak at a factory in Kidderminster.

Employees of Sealine on Whitehall Road fled the building when an alarm sounded after a skin irritant was spilt at about 11.20am.

Two people were stripped and washed down at the scene by the ambulance hazardous area response team, before being taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital as minor casualties.

Greensboro, NC—A flash fire at a Sherwin-Williams plant left one worker with burns on his face and arms. The industrial accident occurred at around 7:14 a.m., at the plant located at 113 Stage Coach Trail, as reported by the Greensboro News-Record.
According to the Greensboro Fire Department, they believe methyl ethyl ketone vapors ignited, causing the flash fire. The chemical which caught fire is also known a butanone, an industrial solvent.
Responding emergency crews rushed the worker, who remains unidentified, to Moses Cone Hospital for treatment of minor burns to his arms and face. No other injuries were reported and there was no reported damage to the building.

CLEARFIELD — The county’s hazardous materials team was called to a Clearfield business on Monday where two drums were leaking a volatile substance.

The crews were called to Utility Trailer, 1111 S. 1000 West about 4 p.m. Monday, where they found two 55-gallon drums of methyl ethyl ketone had been punctured and were leaking the volatile fluid. By the time crews arrived each barrel had lost about half their contents, Rampton said.

Crews were able to isolate the barrel and put what was left of the substance in different containers, Rampton said. The company hired a company to clean up the spill. There were no injuries.

Rampton said that as part of the county’s hazardous materials team, his crew was called out to assist the North Davis Fire District, which was in charge of the call. Crews from Layton and Syracuse fire departments also assisted.