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.

Two chemical tanks have exploded during a blaze at a design manufacturing plant in Essex.

Six fire crews were called to the Sil-Die factory in Fullbridge, Maldon, at 1245 GMT.

Two phosphorus tanks have exploded and crews have been hampered by a number of potentially explosive chemicals.

The fire service said the two-storey property has been "totally destroyed" and a heavy plume of smoke can be seen over the town.

WOODWARD — Two people were injured in a red phosphorous chemical fire at the Deepwater Chemicals plant west of Woodward Tuesday morning.

Woodward Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer said an employee of the iodine derivative production plant was injured when the fire ignited.

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The Deepwater press release noted the fire “occurred during the startup of a separate newly constructed facility at the Deepwater Chemicals plant,” which is located near West Woodward Airport along Airpark Road.

Both Finley and Lehenbauer said the fire started shortly before 9 a.m. as a worker was mixing or preparing to mix some of the red phosphorus chemical, which both said is unstable and highly flammable.

“Friction from the product itself caused it to auto-ignite,” Finley said.

WOODWARD, Okla. --

One person was hurt in a chemical plant fire near the airport in Woodward, located in northwestern Oklahoma.
Woodward County emergency manager Matt Lehenbauer told Eyewitness News 5 that crews from three counties -- Woodward, Harper and Ellis -- extinguished a phosphorous fire at the Deep Water Chemical Plant five miles west of Woodward near the airport and an industrial area.
Four businesses were evacuated to the north of the site.
The nature of the one injury is not known at this time.

UNION CITY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Emergency responders were sent to the Union City High School Tuesday.

Authorities say that they received a report that phosphorous was spilled at the school around 9:00 am.

Branch County dispatchers say that the spill was minor.

A HAZMAT team responded. Streets around the school were shut down so that crews could clean up the area.

Students were sent home early because of the incident.

Authorities at the school say that a chemistry teacher dropped a jar of yellow phosphorous while preparing for a class experiment. Yellow phosphorous is flammable when it is exposed to air.

Several students were in the room when the accident happened. No one was injured. The teacher was taken to a hospital to be checked out.