There are lots of important things to consider when choosing an apartment, house or trailer: commute time, distance to retail centers, public schools -- but perhaps the most important thing of all is, "How do I get rid of that stagnant meth-lab odor?"
Well, thanks to companies like USA Decon, you too can make sure your new abode is suitably free of residues left behind by any former occupants who engaged in the fine art of meth manufacturing. Had we known this sorta thing existed years ago, we never would've agreed to live in that one trailer in the desert for six months. Here are some things USA Decon's CEO, John DiGulio, told us in an e-mail about former meth lab cleanin':

Waste byproducts: "The danger of chemical fires and explosions extends beyond methamphetamine manufacture. After producing the finished methamphetamine, clandestine lab workers are typically left with 5-6 pounds of hazardous waste for each pound of finished methamphetamine produce."

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A government building that houses the Vermont governor's office had to be evacuated after some state workers starting feeling sick.

The employees at the Pavilion Building in Montpelier reported having headaches and watery eyes on Wednesday.

The source appears to have been a waterproof sealant that was being applied to the outside bricks and wafting into the building.

Fayetteville Police said Thursday afternoon that a propane blast that injured four employees with the Fayetteville SwampDogs organization was caused by a leak in an LP gas line inside the building.

Four people were injured in the explosion at the J.P. Riddle Stadium on Legion Road.

An entire shift of firefighters has been replaced at a northeast D.C. station after falling ill.

All eight firefighters at Engine 10 Station in the 1300 block of Florida Avenue NE complained of possible symptoms of chemical exposure – like respiratory problems and burning eyes – Wednesday evening, News4’s Jackie Bensen reported.

D.C. Fire and EMS declared a mass casualty hazmat and took the firefighters to the police and fire clinic for observation.

The firefighters could be ill from a fire they fought about 11 a.m. in the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE, officials said. It’s possible it was a PCP lab.

Extra fire crews were called in to cover Engine 10 Station.

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."

SOUTHBRIDGE —  A chlorine gas scare in a building in the former American Optical complex triggered a hazmat response shortly after 8 yesterday morning.

Acting Fire Chief Mark W. DiFronzo said workers from three companies in a Southbridge Business Center building at 15 Wells St. were evacuated for several hours when an employee at the Schott North America mistakenly mixed hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite, which produced a small amount of chlorine gas.

“When the employee noticed the reaction, he immediately stopped what he was doing, donned a respirator and evacuated employees from the building,” acting Chief DiFronzo said.

He said workers in the building implemented an emergency response plan, evacuating about 100 people from Schott and other businesses in the building; they were allowed to return after about four hours.

“There were no injuries and the public was never in any danger,” he said.

ATLANTA — Barrels of chemicals dumped on the side of a road caused a northwest Atlanta intersection to be shut down early Monday morning.

Hazmat crews spent hours cleaning up the mess after several gallons of chemicals spilled onto the road.

Atlanta firefighters were called to the area near Johnson Road and Rockdale Street due to a suspicious odor.

“They were able to determine some barrels of unknown chemical,” Atlanta Fire Department Capt. Matt Lingquist said.

One barrel was leaking chemicals near an abandoned property.

“We believe it was possibly disposed of illegally,” Lingquist said.

Hazmat crews in protective gear quickly identified the chemical as hydrogen peroxide. The chemical is often used as a bleach or cleaning agent and is considered highly reactive

A strong chemical odor inside the Leslie Pools store brought firefighters to air out the building after two employees evacuated the store shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. A chemical fire started an hour later inside the front door.

Manteca Fire Battalion Chief David Marques held his men outside the building not knowing what caustic chemicals they were dealing with and called in the San Joaquin County Hazmat Team from Stockton.  Another hazmat specialist employed by the pool company was responding from Oakland.

Firefighters had placed an exhaust fan in the doorway to draw fumes out of the building. They then stood between their engines and waited for the arrival of the hazard materials specialists.

At about 10:30 a.m. one firefighter yelled “fire”. The firefighters scrambled toward the pool sales building.  An immediate call to the dispatcher alerted the call center that they now had a structure fire.  Another fire engine was sent to the scene not knowing what was going to develop once the chemicals started reacting with each other.

Fire Captain Rob Grycel and firefighter Brad Missouri were the first to make it to the front of the building. They grabbed the water line that had already been laid in front of the structure as a preventative measure.

A small blaze centered in and around buckets filled with calcium hypo chloride igniting nearby cardboard displays near the front window. Flames licked up the sides of the containers from the floor level.  Firemen were also concerned about putting water on the fire not knowing if it would cause a chemical reaction as well.

A terminal at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was closed for a time after an unknown chemical sent five people to the hospital with respiratory complaints.

Terminal 2 was evacuated for about two hours Friday as hazardous materials technicians investigated what caused several people to become ill.

The cause remains under investigation, though an airport spokesman says it appears an aerosol can discharged.

Broward County Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles says three Transportation Security Administration agents and two passengers were affected by the irritant.

Investigators collected air samples and determined it was safe for people to re-enter. More than 1,000 passengers have been delayed and several inbound flights were diverted to other airports.

NEW CUMBERLAND - The small home at a rural crossroads in central Hancock County is where James Stanley lived and worked for many years. On Thursday, it's where he met a tragic death.

Stanley, who was in his 60s, was working on a project in his driveway with an acetylene torch Thursday afternoon when he was killed by an explosion, officials say.

"It was a bad accident - just one of those freak things that you don't see very often," Hancock County Sheriff Mike White said. "Very unfortunate."

The likely cause of death was trauma and burns from the explosion, according to the sheriff, but officials are still awaiting a ruling from the state medical examiner's office.

White said he knew Stanley as a retired man who still did work on the side with excavating equipment. Several small bulldozers and backhoes sit on his property at the remote intersection of Ballantyne and Shady Glen roads. A lone pine tree stands in his front yard.

Burn marks from the fire that claimed his life can be seen on the ground outside his garage. Police tape no longer surrounds the property, but the state fire marshal's office is continuing its investigation.

"We're not sure exactly what he was doing (with the torch)," White said. "He was cutting something."

Either flames or sparks from the torch ignited a 55-gallon drum that Stanley was standing over while he was working, White said. The drum was sealed and empty, but investigators are conducting tests to see whether vapors were the ignition source.

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.

FRONT ROYAL -- An early Wednesday morning fire in Front Royal destroyed a house, injured two firefighters and sent all four family members jumping through first floor bedroom windows to safety outside.
...

Warren County Fire Marshal Gerry R. Maiatico said he would issue an official finding on the cause of the fire later today. Maiatico said the leading theory is that a polyurethane wood finisher mixed with sawdust started the fire through a heated chemical reaction.

Martocci said he was using polyurethane wood finisher while installing hardwood floors in his home and stored the residual sawdust and wood finisher in a bag.

The fire is the second since Saturday in which wood finisher mixing with

HOLLYWOOD — A four-block stretch of A1A in Hollywood reopened Monday night after being closed much of the day while HazMat units and the bomb squad tried to remove a chemical-filled 55-gallon drum that washed ashore over the weekend.

The day-long effort to remove the drum became complicated in the afternoon when the drum broke apart and appeared to detonate, spewing white smoke, Hollywood fire department officials said. The Broward Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called.

The mysterious drum was finally carted away for proper disposal before 9 p.m. and the roadway reopened.

What chemical the drum contained is unknown pending test results.

"People drop off a little homemade explosive device in the front yard, yeah it's kind of scary ," she said, flipping through pictures on her camera.

Patsy Brown and her husband woke up to find the remnants of a bottle bomb outside their front door on Mother's Day.

"As you can see here, the water bottle just exploded, and the foil exploded in about a 15-20 foot radius," she said, showing us a melted bottle and foil pellets.

The bomb consists of a plastic bottle filled with an unknown chemical liquid and aluminum foil. The concoction is commonly known as a Works Bomb. It exploded while the family was away from home on Saturday night.

UNION TOWNSHIP | Authorities said a home in the Shorewood Forest subdivision was damaged Saturday after two household chemical bombs exploded on the lawn.

A 56-year-old woman told Porter County Sheriff's Department investigators that she and her husband were awoken by a "thud" outside their home about 12:30 a.m. in the 400 block of Westchester Circle.

About an hour later, they heard another noise they thought was possibly their cat knocking something off a table. The woman said they looked around the house, didn't see anything abnormal and went back to bed.

That morning, though, they discovered a window facing the front yard was shattered and areas of their lawn had burn marks next to two plastic bottles.

Authorities said they believe one of the bottles was thrown at the window and and it appears both bottles were used to create a bomb-like device using household cleaners.

Officers said the family initially wondered if they had been targeted because of their Muslim faith. On Monday, Sgt. Larry LaFlower, public information officer with the sheriff's department, said investigators found nothing leading them to believe the vandalism was a possible hate crime.

A MAN has been charged on suspicion of possessing an explosive which led to the prolonged evacuation of around 50 houses in Sheffield.

Police said the 34-year-old man is facing charges on two counts of possessing an explosive, after chemicals were found at a property on Ridgehill Avenue, Intake.

They said the substances, discovered on Thursday, were consistent with those used in the production of class A drugs and explosives.

The suspect, who lives on Ridgehill Avenue, has been remanded in custody.

A second man in his 60s arrested in relation to the incident was released on police bail until June, pending further enquiries.

Flame retardants in furniture foam – weighing the evidence
by ANDREW MAYNARD on MAY 10, 2012
The Chicago Tribune launched a hard hitting investigative series this week on the downsides of flame retardant chemicals. Opening with the line “The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world”, the series paints a picture of corporate greed, misinformation and questionable decisions as it takes a critical look at the possible health consequences, questionable benefits and alleged underhand business practices that in their words have “led to a proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised”.

Not surprisingly, the series has attracted a lot of attention this week. Compellingly written, it tells a story of how cynical manipulation and misinformation has led to potentially harmful fire retardant chemicals being used widely in household products without clear evidence that they save lives.  But how accurate is the science behind the story?

BOMB squad officers carried out a controlled explosion this afternoon after police discovered chemicals in a Sheffield office.

Ridgehill Avenue, Intake, Sheffield, was shut for hours yesterday when police discovered chemicals relating to drug production.

The avenue was cordoned off for a second time this morning when more substances were discovered during a follow-up search.
...
“Police had previously found chemicals at the address and the controlled explosion took place to safely dispose of these substances from the property.

“Earlier this morning a number of neighbouring properties were evacuated as a precautionary measure, as the public’s safety is paramount to officers.

“A 34-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly attempting to produce class A drugs, he has subsequently been arrested under the explosives act.

A chemical spill at KGH Thursday afternoon.

Hazmat crews were called to the scene shortly after 1pm after a small bottle of Phenol was spilled in a room in the ambulatory care treatment centre.

Health Service Director, Andrew Hughes says patient care continued, the waiting room remained opened and only one room was isolated.

"Part of the protocol is, when it first spilled, it wasn't know what the substance was. So, we just decided to take the necessary precautions and hence, you get the response."

The chemical is used for inner ear treatment.
Kelowna News Send to a friend
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An ammonia leak at a food distributor in Lebanon early Thursday morning required about 30 night shift employees to be evacuated for several hours.

Crews responded to the leak at Performance Food Group distribution center on Maddox Simpson Parkway around 2:45 a.m., Wilson County Emergency Management Agency director John Jewell said.

The leak didn’t elevate to dangerous levels, Jewell said. Crews turned off a series of valves to isolate the leak’s location and employees were allowed to return around 6 a.m.

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Firefighters investigating the source of a strong odor in downtown Menlo Park early Wednesday discovered a man was using a dangerous chemical to refine gold in the back of a pickup truck. San Mateo Fire Department spokesman Brian Molver said the incident began when a patrolling deputy saw a trunk ajar on a car parked on Edison Way.
“When he investigated that he got a whiff of a chemical smell that was coming from across the street from the back of a pickup truck,” Molver said. “The deputy was exposed to this fume and called in fire to investigate.”
Arriving firefighters noticed that something was going on in the back of the truck and called in a hazmat team.
“The person was refining gold in the back of the truck using electric heating units and the gold was in the beakers,” Molver said. “He was using chromatic acid and the county environmental health officer is following up with sheriff’s deputies and the fire department.” Chromatic acid is a mixture made by adding concentrated sulfuric acid to a dichromate, which may contain a variety of compounds, including solid chromium trioxide. It is used to brighten the metal but is considered carcinogenic.
It is rarely used industrially because of health and environmental concerns.

GOBLES - A rural Gobles man is lucky to be alive after his suspected meth lab exploded Sunday, burning him severely, Van Buren County Sheriff's officers said.

The man, 52, is in stable condition in a medically induced coma at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo following the 5:23 a.m. meth fire, Sgt. Dan Abbott said.

Police did not identify the man because no arrest warrant has yet been issued.

But a neighbor identified him as John "Johnny" Uminn.

His mother drove him to Bronson after the fire and explosion in the garage at 27242 12th Ave. in Pine Grove Township, and Uminn told hospital staff what had happened.

Police said they then obtained a search warrant and found the suspected meth lab and lab components in the garage. Uminn's mother told police her son was so badly burned that skin was falling off his hands, and police found some of his fingernails in the garage.

WILDOMAR ---- One person was hurt Monday while helping to extinguish a fire that started in a swimming pool pump at a home in Wildomar, authorities said.

Firefighters with the Riverside County Fire Department responded at 11:25 a.m. to a report of a blaze at a home on Sellers Road, according to a report by Cheri Patterson, a spokeswoman for the department.

A leaky swimming pool pump caught fire, and pool chemicals that were nearby were partially burned, according to the report.

A neighbor who helped extinguish the blaze before firefighters arrived was having problems breathing, the report said. The person was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries.

Hazardous materials officials with county and state fire departments investigated the incident and determined that a relatively small amount of chemicals had leaked from the pump, and the leak did not endanger the community, according to the report.

The number of meth manufacturing cases in Kansas rose 43 percent last year, but the jump hasn’t alarmed state law enforcement officials.

Deputy KBI Director Kyle Smith said a part of the increase — from 143 incidents in 2010 to 204 in 2011 — was the result of a change in the way reports are counted. The 17 incidents reported after Jan. 31, 2011, would have gone into the 2012 total under the old system of reporting, he said.

And while the raw numbers are still up, he said, the operations that were uncovered by law enforcement officers last year were generally smaller than the ones that were commonly found in previous years. He said a review of the 2011 cases found that more than 40 percent were “one-pot” operations that involved much smaller amounts of meth than are found in traditional meth-making operations.

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.

GARDEN CITY, Mich. -
A Garden City apartment complex is back to normal after a resident called in an exterminator to get rid of bed bugs, and then created a hazmat situation.

A resident at the Village Lake Apartments sprayed for bed bugs on Saturday afternoon, but entered their apartment before the three hour wait time. That caused the fumes from the extermination to leak into the hallways, according to fire officials.

One person was sent to the hospital, but has since been released. Several people complained of breathing problems

Fire officials in Seekonk believe that a man killed himself by breathing in a mixture of hydrogen sulfide while inside a car, in a parking lot, where a carnival was scheduled to take place.

Thankfully the man did leave several notes on the car warning people to stay away.

And without those warnings, officials say that the situation could have been much worse.

The warnings were first discovered by a group of kids at around 2:30 Friday afternoon.

"It said poisonous gas, hydrogen sulfide, do not open the doors, call 9-1-1 and get the hazmat team." said 13-year old Matthew Stanley.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - First responders in St. Paul are going through a condo complex after the discovery of chemicals in a basement storage area Thursday.

St. Paul Fire Marshall and spokesman Steve Zaccard tells KARE 11 that hazmat crews were summoned after the discovery of a 5-gallon bucket of sulfuric acid in the basement at 311 Pleasant Avenue.

Zaccard says the condo complex was once a hospital, but didn't know whether the chemicals had been present since then.

Fire crews removed the bucket. At this time it does not appear anyone was injured in the incident.

The contents of a white canister that witnesses report was thrown from the window of a vehicle today on Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore are confirmed to be acid, Lower Merion Fire Chief Chas McGarvey told news media around 5:30 p.m. today.

According to witnesses, shortly before 2 p.m. on Thursday a white gallon container was thrown from the window of a vehicle driving on Lancaster Avenue and began vaporizing, McGarvey said.

William Mulgrew didn’t see the canister thrown from the vehicle, but he did call 911.

“I saw this plume of white fog—it was huge—and it was blurring everybody’s vision,” Mulgrew said.

Mulgrew called 911 around 2 p.m.

"At first I thought it was a prank from some kid, but when I saw how much stuff was coming out of it, I didn't feel right about it, not knowing what kind of fumes it was giving off. It was a giant white plume of smoke... and what bothered me is people were standing there looking at it—cars were driving through it," he said.

Police, fire and Montgomery County HAZMAT officials arrived on the scene shortly, blocking off Lancaster Avenue on a quarter-mile stretch from Greenfield Avenue to South Wyoming Avenue until after 6 p.m. Some traffic was redirected to Montgomery Avenue.

EDDING, Calif. -- A methamphetamine lab is blamed for an apartment explosion in Redding early Wednesday morning.
It happened in 1400 block of Orange Avenue in Redding about 12:30 a.m.
One man suffered severe burns and was taken from the scene by ambulance. He was treated at Mercy Medical Center.
"He had skin and plastic hanging off of him," said Trenton Duncan, who helped pull the burned man out of the burning apartment. "He was pretty bad."

STURGIS – Two police officers had to be treated after a meth lab explosion.

Sturgis police were originally called to a fight at an apartment on East Hatch Street early Wednesday morning. They found two people with injuries and a blood trail to another apartment with smoke coming from under the door.

When the two officers entered, they were exposed to meth fumes. They were treated and released for illness and symptoms from the exposure.

Fire personnel were called in for hazmat containment and to decontaminate one of the suspects. Police arrested both suspects on meth charges.

MONROE — Hazardous materials crews have been called to deal with a box of broken thermometers found in a metal trash bin at a Michigan hospital.

Monroe police Sgt. Charles McCormick IV tells The Monroe Evening News (http://bit.ly/I88I9R ) the roughly 2-foot-by-2-foot box contained several thermometers that apparently broke and spilled a small amount of mercury.

Cleanup teams were sent to Mercy Memorial Hospital in Monroe today to dispose of the toxic chemical. Monroe is located near the Ohio border about 35 miles southwest of Detroit.

The Monroe fire department cordoned off a 150-foot area of the trash bin that’s located on the side of the hospital building.

ST. HELENS -- A simmering dispute between neighbors in a duplex led to an apparent chemical attack early Wednesday morning that drew hazmat crews to the scene, police said.
Four people in an upstairs unit were taken to the hospital after reporting headaches, nausea and vomiting, St. Helens Police Chief Steve Salle told KGW.
Patrick Stangis, 50, who lives below the victims, was arrested for assault, reckless endangering and menacing.
Salle said Stangis admitted he was responsible for making the upstairs residents ill by pumping an unspecified chemical agent into the vents to their unit.

A CHEMICAL company was fined €300,000 yesterday over an explosion at a plant in which a worker was killed.

Liam Nodwell (58) died after suffering burns to 90pc of his body in a huge explosion on April 28, 2008, at the Corden PharmaChem plant in Little Island, Cork.

His burns were so bad that the ambulance that brought the dying man to Cork University Hospital later had to be taken out of service by the HSE and decontaminated.

Yesterday, Liam's brother and sister, Jimmy and Sheila Nodwell, told the Irish Independent nothing would ever make up for the loss of a devoted father, husband, brother and friend.

"He was a father figure to all of us -- he was a marvellous, kind, devoted man. He was worth 10 times €300,000. That's all we can say," they said.

Corden was fined €300,000 and ordered to pay costs of €72,000 after what Judge Patrick Moran at Cork Circuit Criminal Court said was "a very serious (safety) breach".

Mr Nodwell of Church Hill, Glanmire, died just hours after the explosion, which blew apart sections of the firm's Production Block II facility.

A second employee -- James O'Sullivan -- suffered multiple injuries but survived.

A civil action is understood to be still ongoing.

Corden pleaded guilty to four different breaches of health and safety regulations.

The company expressed its regrets and sympathies to the Nodwell family on their loss.

A blown transformer at Emcore caused employees to evacuate and hazmat teams to respond to the business at around noon on Tuesday.

According to the Albuquerque Fire Department, a transformer blew and caused a power outage at the building near Sandia Laboratories.

When the back-up generator came on, some sort of gas was released and it set off the “gas alarms’ in the building.

CHILLICOTHE — Monday started off busy for Chillicothe firefighters who responded to two nearly back-to-back fires.

The first call came in just before midnight at the Sherwin-Williams store at 170 N. Bridge St.

“When they first pulled up, they had fire coming out of the northside door. As they were doing a walk around, the roof collapsed,” said Interim Fire Chief Jeff Creed.

Popping noises could be heard in the minutes of the fire, presumably from cans of paint exploding. As of 2:30 a.m., Bridge Street remained closed between Riverside and East Water streets. However, Creed anticipated the street to be open for the morning rush hour.

A portable methamphetamine lab exploded in a man’s pants as he scuffled with a state trooper who chased after him when he noticed an unusual chemical smell.

David Williams, 54, was caught with the homemade device - also known as the 'shake and bake' method - after an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer pulled over the SUV he was travelling in for speeding.

While issuing a speeding fine to the driver the officer sniffed a suspicious chemical odor and began to question Williams.

But Williams made a run for it and the officer reported that the meth was leaking down Williams’ leg as he tried to escape shortly after midnight on Friday morning.

The officer gave chase and soon caught Williams. As the pair struggled the ‘active meth lab’ stashed in Williams' pants burst - covering him in the substance.

Medical personnel checked over Williams at the scene but -  despite the explosion - he was not injured.

The portable meth lab, also called the 'one pot' method, is produced in a plastic bottle.

TANEY COUNTY, Mo. -- A Taney County family is recovering after they were sickened by toxic fumes from chemicals used to clear a clogged pipe. The incident happened at a home on the 900 block of Painter Road on Thursday night.

A hazardous materials team targeted the source of the fumes to the kitchen where one of the residents used three types of acid in an effort to clear the drain. Firefighters spent two hours removing the plumbing in the kitchen plumbing and cleaning up all the chemicals.

Assistant Chief, Bruce Bjorge with the Western Taney County Fire District said, "This incident serves as a good reminder to everyone that when individuals use household chemicals for any purpose special care should be taken to use them properly.  However this is especially true when stronger chemicals are going to be used.  Examples would be chemicals used to strip paint, clear clogged drains, and other purposes or when they say industrial or professional strength.  Be sure to read the labels on the packages and know how to use the products as they were intended.  People should refrain from mixing chemicals of any type unless they are following specific instructions for a specific purpose."

DAYTONA BEACH -- A man was severely burned in an explosion Friday morning while making methamphetamine at a Fairway Estates house known for drug activity, police said.

The Daytona Beach Police Department at 6:50 a.m. learned Kenneth Roberts, 44, had burns and injuries consistent with chemical exposure, possibly a meth lab explosion or related fire, according Detective John Creamer, police spokesman.

Roberts' injuries were so severe he was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center to treat his burns. He was in stable condition later Friday, Creamer said.

Officers responding to 1210 Margina Ave. found the remnants of a fire consistent with materials used in the production of methamphetamine.

At least eight veterinary workers have been poisoned by exposure to potentially lethal phosphine gas when dogs being treated for ingesting pest-killing chemicals have thrown up in their offices, and health officials suspect there may be other unreported cases as well. All of the human victims recovered with no lasting effects, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that more serious incidents could occur and cautioned veterinarians to be alert.

Zinc phosphide is a widely used rodent killer. When it is ingested, contact with stomach acid and water produces phosphine gas, which is highly toxic. If the animals are induced to regurgitate the poison -- standard procedure -- phosphine gas can be released into the office, exposing workers.

In one such incident reported in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday, a 70-pound dog that had eaten rodenticide was brought into a veterinary hospital in Michigan. When vomiting was induced with hydrogen peroxide, two workers were poisoned by exposure to the resulting gas. One technician reported shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, headache and nausea. An office manager reported similar symptoms, as well as lightheadedness. Four other workers reported only one symptom, such as chest tightness, chest pain or headache, and were not considered poisoned. All six recovered without hospitalization.

t's a clean-up job with serious danger involved.

A specially trained crew was called out Wednesday after two Belmont County parole officers discovered a meth lab in a Barnesville man's basement.

Now the man is in jail, and the lab has been dismantled by experts.

It all started when two parole officers dropped in to check on 22-year-old Michael Malesky of Sandy Ridge Road, outside Barnesville.

The parole officers told 7 News they noticed drugs in the house, and then noticed other items--Coleman lantern fluid, denatured alcohol, pseudo ephedrine, and cold packs.

Together in one place, those items spell meth lab.

And they found one in the basement.

Eighty people were evacuated following a chemical incident at a Croydon hotel yesterday.

Firefighters from New Addington fire station were called to the Selsdon Park Hotel, Addington Road, just before 6.43pm to reports of an automatic fire alarm going off.

When the crew arrived they discovered there was a chemical incident, with the wrong quantities of sodium hypochlorite and sodium bisulphate mixed in the hotel's leisure centre.

London ambulance were called and one person was taken to hospital suffering from the effects of inhaling chemical fumes.

ORTON, Ill. —
Officials are warning against any consumption by livestock of waters in Prairie Creek, which experienced a “complete” fish kill downstream of the site of a chemical spill into the creek Tuesday.

Several hundred gallons of a mixture containing 28 percent nitrogen and 13 percent of a herbicide containing Atrazine, along with about 60 gallons of diesel fuel, spilled into the creek along Allentown Road west of Allentown when a fertilizer spreader tipped over.

Responders with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Pekin and Morton fire departments returned to the creek’s downstream path Wednesday to contain the spill and collect water samples.

The chemicals can still be dangerous even if the water appears clear, officials warned.
 

MONROE, Mich. (AP) — Hazardous materials crews have been called to deal with a box of broken thermometers found in a metal trash bin at a Michigan hospital.

Monroe police Sgt. Charles McCormick IV tells The Monroe Evening News (http://bit.ly/I88I9R ) the roughly 2-foot-by-2-foot box contained several thermometers that apparently broke and spilled a small amount of mercury.

Cleanup teams were sent to Mercy Memorial Hospital in Monroe on Tuesday to dispose of the toxic chemical. Monroe is located near the Ohio border about 35 miles southwest of Detroit.

The Monroe fire department cordoned off a 150-foot area of the trash bin that's located on the side of the hospital building.

VINA, Ala.- One man was injured in a house fire investigators believe was caused by a meth lab explosion.

Vina fire and Hodges/Vina police responded to residence on hwy 19 in Vina around 6 p.m. Monday. When they arrived emergency first responders found 33-year-old Johny Bell with possible chemical burns.

Bell was transported to Eliza Coffee Hospital where he was treated for possible chemical burns and turned over to law enforcement on drug drug charges.

As nanoparticles increasingly make their way into consumer products and the environment, toxicologists want to understand their effects on human health. Ideally, they’d like to develop models that predict a material’s toxicity based on its chemical properties. Now a research team reports the first such model for metal oxide nanoparticles that uses the materials’ electrical and solubility properties (ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn3010087).
Metal oxide nanoparticles are semiconducting materials that drive oxidation and reduction reactions in devices such as fuel cells and electronics. Previous studies have linked the materials to health problems, such as inflammation in the lungs of welders who inhale fumes containing the compounds (Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., DOI: 10.1016/j.taap.2003.11.021).

On Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, a gardener was seriously injured when he stepped on some gravel in the yard of a San Diego-area home and the ground exploded beneath his feet. Subsequent investigation of the house and its grounds revealed what authorities called the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in the U.S. They deemed the house too dangerous to clean out and burned it down instead.
At the American Chemical Society national meeting in San Diego last month, in a symposium organized by the Division of Chemical Health & Safety, officials described how the incident unfolded.
Fire and ambulance crews initially responded to the scene; then they called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department when they realized that the gardener’s injuries were from an explosion, said Nick Vent, an environmental health specialist in the Hazardous Materials Division of the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health.
Sheriff’s officers subsequently took the house resident, George Djura Jakubec, then 54, into custody for questioning; brought in bomb squad and hazmat crews; and evacuated the neighbors. The property is in a residential area, on unincorporated land but surrounded by the city of Escondido in northern San Diego County. It is also a few hundred feet from Interstate 15.

A Phoenix bagel shop had to be evacuated Saturday after a carbon monoxide leak left seven employees in need of medical treatment.

Two workers at Einstein Bros. Bagel went home ill Saturday morning after complaining of dizziness, nausea and of feeling lightheaded.

One went to the hospital where they were diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning, The Arizona Republic reported.

The hospital alerted the fire department, who arrived at the bagel shop about 1:40 p.m. Firefighters discovered a leak in the hood of a stove and closed the shop.

Five more employees were discovered to be displaying the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, and three were taken to the hospital but were in stable condition, said Dorian Jackson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Fire Department.

Northern Vanderburgh County farmer Randy Kron nervously grinned while explaining his plan this year to grow crops on about 2,000 acres across Southwestern Indiana.

Kron said he took a gamble by starting the growing season early. This year's warmer temps and sunnier skies put him roughly a month ahead of schedule to plant corn. By Easter weekend, the majority of his crop was planted and the anhydrous ammonia applied.

Kron said hopefully his luck with temperatures will be the same as keeping the ammonia out of the hands of eager old-fashioned methamphetamine cooks.

Four years ago, the white cylindrical wagons he uses to apply the ammonia were a target for meth cooks. But this year, Kron said ,he's had more time to worry about the weather. Law enforcement and anhydrous co-op managers around the region said the same.

Today, more meth cooks continue to opt for the more portable one-pot method than risk stealing the ammonia from area farms. And with a new additive to help early planting tainting supplies, anhydrous thefts have been nonexistent. But like the weather, members of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force said it may be too early to determine the impact.

Over the past two years, the one-pot meth lab surpassed the larger and more confusing anhydrous version. Meth cooks now use a first-aid cold pack to create the ammonia they once stole. The new method brought the drug manufacture into urban areas such as Evansville, where there are more places to hide and supplies are available at most local drugstores.

"The one-pot method is more user-friendly, so more people tend to use it," said Brock Hensley, an Evansville Police Department detective assigned to the Drug Task Force. "But it may be too early to tell."

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) - The State Police bomb squad and hazmat team were called to 125 Jarvis Avenue in Holyoke Sunday morning.

Lt. Thomas Paquin of the Holyoke Fire Department told 22News, Elizabeth Mish, the woman who lives in the home, found chemicals in her garage that belonged to her deceased husband.

She was concerned because the chemicals had been in there for many years.

When the bomb squad arrived they found a couple cases of blasting caps. They took those away to detonate them in a safe area.

The hazmat team found several different chemicals in the house as well.

One neighbor told 22News he was shocked to see so many police and fire trucks outside of his home.

"I just wanted to know if it was stable or not in case it was going to blow up or something. We don't really know about chemicals, it was a little scary, it was a little nerve-racking at first,” said Bryan Borges-Vega who lives across the street.

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Emergency crews responded to the scene of a HAZMAT situation at an apartment building on Greenfield in Detroit.

EMS, Detroit Police, the fire department and HAZMAT crews were on the scene.

The building was being sprayed for bed bugs, but some of the residents did not leave the building.

Emergency crews could be seen hosing down individuals and taking residents away by ambulance.

Officials tell Action News eight to ten people were taken to area hospitals to be treated.

A BACKYARD father and son chemical experiment has backfired, with the teenage boy left with serious burns to his hands.

The 14-year-old and his father were trying to recreate tests the boy had learnt in the school science laboratory in the garden of their Springhall Pde home in Pascoe Vale South.

But the chemicals exploded just before noon and the boy suffered full thickness burns to both hands.

The police, MFB and paramedics were called to the home, with the MFB’s scientific officer called to advise on the handling and disposal of the volatile chemicals.

Magnesium, one of the main chemicals they had been playing with, reacts explosively with other agents and the intense fire it creates cannot be extinguished with water.

The boy was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital burns unit in a serious condition.

A police spokeswoman said it was not a criminal matter and police would not be investigating.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A 25-year-old man suffered burns after a house explosion in Louisville's Butchertown neighborhood.
According to the Louisville Fire Department, the injured man was responsible for the explosion.

Louisville firefighters found fire and haze on the upper floor and outside they discovered structural damage to the back of the building. Because of the volatile chemicals involved in meth production, firefighters initially backed out of the building, which houses four apartment units.

“We started treating it as a meth lab situation,” said Louisville Fire Department Capt. Salvador Melendez.

After further investigating, they discovered it wasn't a meth lab, but was instead a marijuana-drying operation. Officials said more than a pound of marijuana was discovered.

A meth lab found in a Cheney apartment last week has led to an Eastern Washington University student’s arrest and a multi-agency investigation.
Patrick M. Janicke, 22, was arrested April 11 for malicious mischief, manufacturing meth and using a building for drug purposes. Janicke was reported to police by his roommate for slashing tires in their apartment complex’s parking lot; the roommate claimed he was not aware that Janicke, an EWU science major, was cooking meth, instead assuming he was doing chemistry homework.
Police discovered the meth lab in Janicke’s apartment on the 2700 block of Al Ogdon Way after arresting him for slashing tires.
Cheney Police Cmdr. Rick Campbell said the incident began late on the evening of April 10, when Janicke left something in the apartment’s kitchen that caught fire. Janicke’s roommate put out the fire and threw out the substance, which angered Janicke and spurred an argument. He then went outside and began slashing tires.

Kathleen Marshall used to think the fenced backyard of her Philadelphia home was a safe place for her five children to play. Not anymore.

Marshall was horrified to learn that a long-forgotten factory once melted lead just across the street and that soil tests by USA TODAY indicate her yard is contaminated with hazardous levels of the toxic metal.
"You're living here and you have no idea of what's really in your ground, what's in your backyard," Marshall says now. "It's just kind of scary to think that you're sending your kids out to play in an area that's hazardous."
Hundreds of soil tests by USA TODAY in neighborhoods near former lead factories show numerous areas where the dirt is so contaminated that children should not be playing in it.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- Hazmat, police and fire crews have evacuated the parking lot of the old Fred Meyer where INL buses park on North Yellowstone in Idaho Falls.
Idaho Falls Fire/EMS Division Chief Dave Coffey said that a cylinder full of boron trifluoride broke, causing the gas to leak.
The gas is hazardous, but does not pose a danger to the public.
Crews took advantage of the windy weather, which allowed them to let the gas leak out and dissipate in a controlled manner.
"There's no danger to the public," Coffey said. "We want to make sure that everyone's aware of that. And this was non-radiological, just a hazardous material -- a hazardous gas, actually -- that has been mitigated at this time."
Two West One Logistics employees, who contract with the INL and manage the evacuated property, were exposed to the boron trifluoride. They were both evaluated at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and have since been released.

NORTON - A portion of North Worcester Street was closed for about 3 1/2 hours today after water department employees discovered an old abandoned gas line leaking fluid containing a low-level of PCBs, officials said.

Water department workers tried to contained the fluid in a pail and contacted fire officials immediately after the incident around 11:30 a.m.

Less than five gallons of fluid leaked from the line, Joe Ferson, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said.

“We’re talking about low levels and subsurface, at this point,” Ferson said when asked about the potential dangers.

A Winnipeg hazardous materials team spent much of Wednesday afternoon cleaning up a small formaldehyde spill at St. Boniface General Hospital.

Hazmat units were called to the hospital at around 2:45 p.m. CT, after staff in the shipping and receiving area noticed a three-litre container of formaldehyde was leaking, according to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

The receiving area was evacuated and nearby air vents were blocked due to fumes from the formaldehyde leak, but patients are not at risk, the health authority said in a release.

The hospital blocked all "non-essential foot and vehicle traffic" around the receiving area so the hazmat teams could clean up the spill.

As of 7 p.m., the hazmat teams have completed their work, but hospital staff are still cleaning up the area.

SAN BERNARDINO -- Firefighters came to a San Bernardino business Wednesday after someone found two containers, including one with a cyanide label, in a cabinet.
Neither of the bottles spilled, but hazardous materials personnel conducted tests on the chemicals to determine how to handle them.

A man looking through items on the property in the 600 block of West 40th Street called the San Bernardino Fire Department at 10:02 a.m. after finding a bottle labeled cyanide and another with a skull-and-crossbones label, said fire Division Chief Eric Esquivel.

Esquivel said the chemicals were found in an auto repair business that is in the process of being sold

Colorado Springs Police were treated for chemical exposure after they investigated a burglary in north Colorado Springs Tuesday night.

According to police, officers were called to 4502 Misty Drive to investigate a burglary about 11 p.m., but when they arrived they began to suffer from burning, itchy eyes.

When they stepped out of the home, they continued to have symptoms and had headaches and burning throats. The Colorado Springs hazardous materials team investigated, and discovered that the homeowner had been using chemicals to refine silver and the officers had been exposed. The officers were treated by paramedics and their symptoms quickly faded.

An Arlington Heights man was burned and a firefighter was injured in a Wednesday night house fire that exploded in the man’s basement, but officials said their injuries could have been much worse.

The man was able to escape the smoky basement after chemical fumes exploded in his face, and firefighters pulled out of the building just before the first floor collapsed.

“We got out just in time,” said Arlington Heights fire Lt. Ray Loch.

Firefighters evacuated the house after a firefighter in a stairwell was thrown back during a flashover, injuring him.

The first floor collapsed shortly after firefighters went into a defensive position, Loch said.

The homeowner was working to plug a hole with a flammable material when, fire officials believe, the water heater kicked on and ignited fumes from the patching material about 5 p.m.

PEMBERTON TWP., N.J. - April 16, 2012 (WPVI) -- Nine people, including police and EMTs, were sickened during a hazmat investigation in Burlington County.

The incident took place shortly after 8:00 p.m. along the 400 block of Cherokee Drive in Pemberton Township.

Fire crews responded for the report of a foul odor making residents sick.

Fire and hazmat crews set up a decontamination station.
During the investigation, those sickened were rushed to Deborah Hospital in Browns Mills and Virtua Hospital in Mount Holly.

None of the injuries are believed to be life threatening.

All are expected to be treated and released.

Police say the cause of the odor appears to be household chemicals that had been mixed together.

It's not clear if anyone will be cited in connection with the incident.

Six people were killed in two different accidents, including an explosion that brought down a four-storey building in southern China today.

Five people were killed and four others seriously injured when a building collapsed, after an explosion in a nearby garage in east China's Fujian Province.

Rescuers are searching the debris for survivors.

The accident was triggered by an explosion that ripped through a garage and toppled a four-storey building in Daji Village of Longyan City.

The building was a residential complex owned by Shubang Coal Mine.

A crude method for manufacturing methamphetamine is putting the safety of the general public in jeopardy, including those who would never intentionally get anywhere near the drug, according to police.

The so-called “shake-and-bake” method involves combining raw, unstable ingredients in a container and leaving it somewhere to bake, typically outside. Manufacturers often use two-liter plastic soda bottles and place them near walking trails and rural roadsides.

Steuben County Undersheriff Ray Dell said ingredients such as cold medicine are mixed with common household chemicals, and they produce enough meth for the user to get a few hits.
“It’s a cocktail of hazardous chemicals, and its use, especially in southern Steuben County, is growing at an unbelievable rate,” Dell said.

Not only are the chemicals toxic, but the mini meth labs can explode with enough force to maim.
“(An explosion) occurs if the appropriate formula is not used,” said Mike Sprague, the director of the Steuben County Office of Emergency services. “People often toss the two-liter bottles on the side of the road so if it doesn’t react properly, it won’t blow up at their residence.”

ince the advent of the so-called “shake and bake” or “one-pot” meth-making process, the number of incidents involving explosions and fires — and serious injuries — has increased dramatically in Franklin County.
“We’ve worked more of these (meth-related fires) in the last two years than we did in the previous decade,” remarked Detective Sgt. Jason Grellner, head of the Franklin County Narcotics Enforcement Unit.
Last month, two people were burned, one seriously, when a one-pot meth lab exploded as they were driving in a car near St. Clair. A third suspect in the car was not injured. The vehicle was destroyed.
The man who sustained serious injuries had been holding the lab — contained in a 2-liter plastic bottle — on his lap when it exploded.
County authorities do not keep specific records on the number of people who have been burned or otherwise injured in meth lab explosions and fires, but they agree that it’s much higher since the one-pot meth burst on the scene in 2009.
“In the last two years, 80 percent of the meth lab fires I’ve investigated have involved one-pot labs,” said Jim Schuhmacher, Franklin County arson investigator.

ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) - It was not the first stop to cook meth for the suspects, Robert Catoe and Heather Latham in York County.  The Multi Jurisdictional Drug Task Force Commander Marvin Brown says they've discovered now six different motels in York County where they know the duo had been making the drugs.

He also told WBTV's Trent Faris through the course of the investigation that number could triple.

Brown said Catoe and Latham would check into the motels under aliases, moving their meth making materials around by van.

Friday, while she was cleaning the room the owner of the Hillside Motel told WBTV when Catoe and Latham checked in last week they told her they were moving to Rock Hill from Arizona and need a place to stay while they looked for a house to buy.

"They jumped from motel room to motel room cooking meth and we knew that so we tried to hone in on them to try and stop this before someone got hurt," said Brown

The owner who didn't want to be identified went on to say Latham would pay for their stay every day, and three days prior to the bust Catoe paid the bill.  The change prompted her to have her house keeper check on the room and nothing was out of the ordinary.

Almost 1 000 employees fled their offices in the Randburg CBD this morning after gas leaked into the ventilation system at their work premises.

JDG Trading, based in Kent Avenue, was in chaos as employees were evacuated. Five were seriously injured from gas inhalation.

Netcare spokesman Jeff Wicks said a mid-morning emergency call was made from the building after staff complained of tickling throats and difficulty breathing.

Paramedics and hazard material (hazmat) teams rushed to the scene.

Eight people received treatment at the scene. Five were in respiratory distress. The eight were quickly moved to a medical station set up further away from the noxious gases.

By 11am the five were stable.

Hazmat teams were still trying to find the source of the leak about 11am. Paramedics were unable to confirm what type of gas had leaked.

Police have removed what they say is explosive material from the backyard of the former Forest Hill home of Byron Sonne, the so-called “G20 geek,” nearly two years after his arrest for allegedly possessing explosives.

Closing arguments in Sonne’s trial ended Monday and it is unclear what effect, if any, this new evidence will have in the case, or if the Crown can lay new charges.

Toronto police, including members of the Explosive Disposal Unit, firefighters and ambulance were called early Wednesday to a Forest Hill home near Bathurst St. and Eglinton Ave., the house Sonne once shared with his now estranged wife. She still lives there, according to neighbours.

Toronto police investigator Tam Bui said investigators went to the home to follow up on evidence that came out in Sonne’s trial.

The trial heard that during an online chat May 29, 2010, Sonne talked about a “storage magazine’’ buried in the shady part of the backyard of the home, “sealed and hidden’’ and containing potassium chlorate.

Potassium chlorate can be used to make both explosives and propellants for rockets, his trial heard.

SAN ANTONIO -
Three children were sent to the hospital following a hydrochloric acid vapor leak at a Northwest Side fitness club Thursday evening.

Hazmat crews were called the Spectrum Fitness Club in the 11700 block of Bandera Road after the children and three other teens began complaining of burning eyes, coughing and throat irritation in the pool area.

Fire officials say the vapor leak was caused by an apparent malfunction with a pump attached to a container with the hydrochloric acid.

The three children were taken to the hospital for treatment. The teens were treated at the scene.

BRICK — Emergency crews responded Thursday morning to a Reedy Drive home for a report of a house that had become filled with fumes.

The culprit: a clogged commode.

The resident of the home, 74-year-old Robert Byrne, had poured bleach into a stopped-up toilet in his upstairs bathroom the previous night, according to Capt. John E. Rein Jr. of the township police. Noticing Thursday morning that the bleach didn’t do the trick, Byrne dumped sulfuric acid into the toilet.

The chemical mixture set off an alarming reaction, causing a foam buildup and fumes to fill the home, Rein said. The fumes caused Byrne breathing difficulties and he was sent to Ocean Medical Center in town for treatment. His dog, too, was affected by the exposure and was turned over to a relative, Rein said.

Ontario fire and police departments have responded to a hazardous material call at a business complex in the 200 block of Milliken Avenue.
About 30 personnel from Ontario police and fire, hazmat and San Bernardino County hazardous material team are on scene and have evacuated the business. No injuries have been reported.

Shortly before 1:30 p.m. fire officials said they would be detonating the control material in the next half hour. While the explosion will cause a loud noise, officials said there was no danger to the surrounding areas.

Ontario fire officials are still trying to determine the composition of the materials, said Jacob Green with Ontario Fire Department.

Green said fire officials also still don't have details about the materials used by the business.

Businesses in the area reported receiving automated messages from the Fire Department informing them of the activity.

SMITHFIELD, Va. (WAVY) - Isle of Wight emergency crews responded to a HAZMAT situation in the 1400 block of South Church Street in Smithfield on April 12.

Chief Chase with IOW Emergency Management says a container of bleach vented off because of too much pressure in a 55-gallon drum barrel. Employees smelled a strong aroma of bleach in the air.

EMS and fire crews were notified and occupants were removed from the building.

Chase says there were no injuries and no fire hazard, but crews monitored the situation until the HAZMAT team arrived to remove the container.

WOOSTER -- After two deputies became sick after a January meth lab bust in Orrville, law enforcement officers now handle suspects differently.

Medway Drug Enforcement Agency and five area law enforcement agencies participated in a raid on a large-scale methamphetamine lab operating at 861 McGill St., Orrville.

A couple of deputies who were transporting the suspects started suffering from headaches, and they became a little nauseated, Medway Director Dave Smith said. He believes they were overcome by fumes coming off of the clothing of the suspects, he added.

The chemicals used to make methamphetamines are extremely dangerous, said Rittman Sgt. Robert Shows, who was involved in the January bust (he was not among those who were overcome by fumes). "Everything in it is flammable, carcinogenic or explosive," he said.

So, the new policy requires the suspects to be stripped out of their clothes and placed in jumpsuits.

"It keeps our transporting officers safer," Sheriff Thomas G. Maurer said.

ELKHART, Ind. — Trash bags on the edge of the road may not be dirty diapers and food scraps. As city officials and a volunteer at the Elkhart Environmental Center found out recently, it could be the remnants of a meth lab.

And local police and firefighters don't have the training to clean them up.

City Councilman Ron Troyer was driving around his district March 27 with the new community affairs officer at the Elkhart Police Department, Sgt. Wayne Bias. Among things they looked at was trash dumped along the side of Perkins Street on city property at the Elkhart Environmental Center.

A number of trash bags and tires sat just below and within 15 feet of a sign that warns of a $2,500 fine for dumping trash, Troyer said.

The Elkhart Street Department was asked to pick up the trash, but Commissioner Marty Morgan told Troyer it was determined the trash was actually meth trash and it was tagged with yellow ribbons to be picked up by the Indiana State Police, which has a special unit to dispose of meth labs.

The remains included tubing, tin foil, pseudoephedrine, bottles with liquid in them and cakes of white powder residue, Assistant Police Chief Tim Balyeat said.

"The police department is not trained, is not equipped and does not have the storage facilities" to deal with meth labs, he said.

More than 10 days later — the bags were still there, Troyer said.

Mayor Dick Moore's office ordered the materials cleaned up, Balyeat said. A short time later, the Elkhart Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team was in special suits and respiratory protection containing the bags.

Police in Boaz, Alabama, discovered a meth lab in a Walmart ladies’ bathroom.

Police Chief Terry Davis said maintenance workers cleaning the bathroom discovered a one-pot meth lab. The device or pot consisted of a Nestle water bottle. Found with the bottle were five packets of pseudoephedrine, a main component of methamphetamine.

Investigators are working with store security teams to analyze security footage to pinpoint a suspect, he said. So-called shake-and-bake meth labs require few ingredients to make a few grams of meth. The shopping list: drain cleaner, lithium batteries and decongestants found in common cold medicines such as Sudafed. All of these items may be found easily at stores, including Walmart, Davis said.

KARACHI: Ceiling of a chemical tank of a private company was blown off near oil installations in Keamari area on Tuesday evening, causing panic in nearby areas, KPT Fire Station sources said.

A fire extinguishing officer said excessive gas in the chemical tank of Home Protect International Company (HPI) located on Plot No 45 near PSO terminal-C, generated the huge blast.

The resultant spill of chemical caused an inferno and spread chaos in the nearby areas, he said and added that fire tenders controlled the fire by using foam.

He said no one was injured in the incident.

MANCHESTER — A man suffered second- and third-degree burns in an explosion that occurred about 1:15 p.m. today while he was attempting to saw an old fuel tank in half.

The man, identified as Edward Bishop, 33, of Oakland, was using a gas-powered saw to make the cut, according to a neighbor.

“It ignited the fumes or fuel inside it,” said Manchester Fire Chief Clarence “Bug” Cram.

Cram said Bishop, who had burns on his face and arms, was taken by ambulance and then transferred to a LifeFlight helicopter to finish the trip to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Health violated federal law governing the handling and storage of hazardous waste at two of its facilities and has fined the agency $68,000 for the violations. EPA inspections at the facilities, the Old Municipal Facility in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and 3500 Estate Richmond, Christiansted in St. Croix, found unlabeled and decaying containers of chemicals and pesticides on the properties. Many of the containers spilled and the USVI Department of Health failed to properly identify what types of waste were being stored. In some instances, the hazardous chemicals had been kept on-site for over ten years in a state of neglect and decay. Among the hundreds of hazardous chemicals on-site were pyrethrin (a neurotoxin), chlorpyrifos (an insecticide) and calcium hypochlorite (a bleach) – all of which are toxic. Federal environmental law requires hazardous chemicals to be stored, handled and disposed of properly to safeguard public health and the environment.

Bluffton, S.C. --
Neighbors in the Baywood subdivision of Bluffton were not allowed to leave or enter while investigators identified an explosive device Monday morning.

Around 9:30 a.m. a resident called police to 2 Juniper Lane citing a crack in his Hyundai SUV windshield and a chemical smell coming from the vehicle.

The Beaufort County Sheriff's Department says the remnants of a soda bottle were found inside the SUV. Bluffton Township Fire District also responded to the scene.

Authorities believe the bottle contained various household chemicals and was placed inside the unlocked vehicle.

Twelve people were evacuated from a South End apartment building and four Boston police officers and an ambulance crew were taken to a hospital after a woman committed suicide Monday night inside an apartment by ingesting a toxic chemical, fire officials said.

Boston Deputy Fire Chief Steve Dunbar said at the hazmat scene that the woman ingested the chemical on the first floor of 676 Mass. Ave. at about 9 p.m. and was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

He said four police officers and the ambulance team of two EMS workers were being quarantined at BMC to determine whether they were affected by the substance.

Dunbar said a relative of the woman, whose name and age he did not know, reported that the victim told her she ingested a chemical and asked that her cats be taken care of.

The deputy fire chief said the victim appeared to be young, but he could not be more specific.

He said the woman is believed to have ingested sodium azide, a chemical used to make airbags. “But it can metabolize into some kind of cyanide,” Dunbar said, adding that the woman died about an hour or two after ingesting the substance.