Firefighters have tackled a blaze caused by an explosion at a pharmaceutical company in Edinburgh.

Crews were sent to MacFarlan Smith on Wheatfield Road in the west of the city at 12.14am on Sunday.

A small explosion started the fire on the second floor of the detached Blandfield Works building and firefighters were required to wear chemical protective suits while extinguishing the flames.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said: “The fire service was called to the scene where there had been a small explosion on the second floor in the process room.

A pharmaceutical company has pleaded guilty to four breaches of health and safety legislation following a chemical explosion at its plant in Cork that claimed the life of one employee and led to serious injury to another.

Corden Pharma Ltd, trading as Corden Pharmachem Ltd with registered offices at South Mall, Cork, pleaded guilty to the four charges relating to the explosion at its plant at Little Island, Co Cork, on April 28th, 2008.

Father-of-one Liam Nodwell (58) from Glanmire on the outskirts of Cork city was fatally injured.

His workmate Jimmy O’Sullivan was seriously injured in the chemical explosion which happened in a process reactor on the 20-acre site.

Yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, company director Patrick Burke pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to the four breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 when the company was arraigned on the charges.

Corden Pharma Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety and prevention of risk to health at work in that it failed to implement control measures to control an emission from a chemical reaction leading to the death of Mr Nodwell and injury to Mr O’Sullivan.

Wearing pajamas and holding their breath against the gagging stench of a spill at the chemical plant two doors down, Victor and Theresa Flow fled their Jackson Street home on Jan. 5, 2002, and headed to the fresh air and shelter of a nearby hotel.

It wasn’t the first time a potentially toxic release from the Diaz Chemical Corp., a manufacturer of specialty chemicals for pharmaceutical and other industries, forced the elderly couple out of their house in the dead of night.

But it was the last.

More than a decade after the spill — and more than $10 million in federal toxic cleanup program money spent so far removing chemicals from the site — it is still unclear what, if any, long-term health hazards the company’s decades-long history of air and water pollution might pose to Holley residents.

Of late with the rising incidents of fire accidents in pharmaceutical factories the safety concerns have become a serious matter of debate. There has been a succession of fire accidents happening in chemical factories in and around Hyderabad.

Last week if it was an explosion in a chemical factory which killed 4 people in Green Park at Polepalli Pharma Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jadcherla, two days later, the explosion of a chemical reactor had charred the bodies of two employees in a huge fire at a pharmaceutical company at Patancheru about 50 kms from Hyderabad.

The fire broke out at the chemical factory of Rantus Pharma in Pashamylaram industrial area of Patancheru in Medak district. The factory was completely gutted. Two employees working at the factory did not return home. Their families lodged a complaint with the police. Investigators found skeletal remains of the missing employees in the rubble. The dead have been identified as stores manager Ravindranath and worker Ram Singh.

Earlier it was believed that only six workers had been injured in the fire. According to police, the fire engulfed the factory after a reactor exploded due to an electrical short-circuits. The fire broke out and spread to neighbouring factories. Fire-fighting personnel battled for five hours to control the flames.

“It is high time that the pharmaceutical companies should take utmost care and precautions to avoid any kind of fire accidents. Otherwise it gives a wrong impression to the world and may compel investors to look out for other safer zones. Already the pharma industry is moving a bit slow due to agitations locally and economic slow down in the international markets,” said an industry analyst.

For worker and operator who are working in chemical factories near reactors or blast furnaces they should be mind full of accidents and always be alert and cautious. Because in most of the chemical factories and chemical reactors there are possibilities of explosions from uncontrolled chemical reactions due to overpressure or due to release of energy from exothermal reactions (a result of mechanical damage or corrosion).

The worker should also be cautious and take precautions against exposure to hazardous substances due to a sudden release of toxic materials from reactors due to the work-related accident or as a result of human error.

Exposure to high temperatures and heat-stress from chemical reactors and exposure to carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic substances present in the reactor or released from the reactor during cleaning and maintenance work may also cause catastrophic damage to the working force in the chemical factories.

Exposure to substances that can harm the nervous system and exposure to suspended dust PM10 can give rise to respiratory diseases.

Hyderabad: Two employees were killed in a huge fire at a pharmaceutical company at Patancheru near here, police said.

The fire broke out Sunday at the chemical factory of Rantus Pharma in Pashamylaram industrial area of Patancheru in Medak district, about 50 km from Hyderabad. The factory was completely gutted.

Two employees working at the factory did not return home Sunday. Their families lodged a complaint with the police. Investigators Monday found skeletal remains of the missing employees in the rubble. The dead have been identified as stores manager Ravindranath and worker Ram Singh.

It was earlier believed that only six workers had been injured in the fire.

According to police, the fire engulfed the factory after a reactor exploded due to an electrical short-circuit. The fire broke out in the evening, and spread to neighboring factories. Fire-fighting personnel had to battle for five hours to control the flames.

This is the second such accident in three days. Four workers of a chemical factory were killed in a reactor blast at Polepalli Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jadcherla in Mahabubnagar district near Hyderabad last Friday.

Six workers suffered severe burns in a major fire that occurred in a pharmaceutical factory in the Pashamylaram industrial area in Patancheru, Medak district, on Sunday.

The reactor of Rantus Pharma Pvt. Ltd., which manufactures Tramadol, an analgesic, burst, and fire engulfed the entire building and later spread to adjacent buildings housing chemical companies Chaitanya Chloride, Aurobindo Chemicals and Satya Dev Chemical.

The injured workers were identified as Husain Ali, Javed Ali, Bapar Singh, Ravindernath, Sujam and Sriram. They are being treated at Remedy Hospital in Kukatpally. The condition of one worker is said to be critical.

Two more labourers, caught in a fire in Kadi, succumbed to their injuries on Sunday. The two were injured following a fire in a pharmaceutical company near Kadi in Mehsana district. With two more death, the toll in the incident has touched seven. Five labourers were killed on Saturday in the massive fire.
According to Kadi police officials, of the four injured, Govind

Thakore, 25, a resident of Kadi died during medical treatment in Ahmedabad civil hospital. Ganeshji Thakore, 20, also succumbed to his injuries at Kalol civil hospital in the wee hours of Sunday.

On Saturday morning at 11 am a major fire broke out in a medicinal alcohol bottling unit of Kayvee Aeropharm Company in Kadi GIDC. The manufacturing and packing of the alcohol-based liquid, used by doctors as an antiseptic to clean wounds, was being done inside an air-tight room.

THE IRISH DEFENCE Forces had to carry out a controlled explosion today after an unstable chemical was found at the offices of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) in Dublin this morning.
An Army Bomb Disposal Team was called to the offices of the PSI, which regulates pharmacy services in Ireland, on Shrewsbury Road after the unstable chemical Picric Acid was found this morning.

Investigators are still searching for a cause after a massive chemical fire at Naeja Pharmaceuticals in southeast Edmonton Tuesday. The blaze caused $7 million in damage.

Naeja Pharmaceuticals President and CEO Chris Micetich told CTV News a fire broke out over the lunch hour Tuesday in a refrigerator used to store chemicals. He says staff heard what sounded like a champagne bottle popping in the fridge.

"They opened up the fridge and they noticed there was a solvent that had spilled a little bit and while they were trying to determine what happened there was a spark and a flame broke out within the refrigerator."

Edmonton Fire Rescue received a 911 call after staff failed to contain the chemical. Sixty-five staff members working at the lab escaped safely.

An air quality advisory in southeast Edmonton was ordered following the explosion and blaze, with officials asking nearby residents to stay indoors -- keeping their furnaces and air conditioners off due to potentially toxic smoke. 

A fire that started in a freezer destroyed a building housing a pharmaceutical research company in southeast Edmonton on Tuesday.

Clouds of smoke billowed, drifting across the south side of the city as flames shot through the roof at 4290 91A St. The building housed a chemical research company, NAEJA Pharmaceutical Inc.

No one was hurt. The fire was brought under control by 9 p.m. Tuesday night and an air quality advisory for residents was lifted.

The first call from the alarm company came in at 1:30 p.m.

“They reported alarms ringing and a fire that had resulted from some sort of bang or explosion,” said Edmonton fire spokesman Tim Wilson.

“They reported a small explosion and a small fire. The fire crews arrived, they could smell something, they brought in Hazmat ... and shortly after 2 p.m., there were some more bangs or explosions,” Wilson said.

CHITWAN: Six workers have been injured when a fire broke out due to chemical leakage at a pharmaceutical factory at Yagyapuri in Bhatarpur-6 of Chitwan district on Tuesday.

According to witnesses, fire and smoke had broken out at Live Care and Agri Care medicine production unit when raw materials for two different medicines came in contact.

All the injured have been admitted to Chitwan Medical College in Bharatpur for treatment. The condition of three injured is reported to be critical.