TUCSON - Investigators are working to determine the cause of a chemical spill at a plant on Tucson's south side.

Tucson Fire Captain Jeff Langejans says around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, an operator from Sasol North America's plant in the 7800 block of South Kolb Road, noticed that hydrochloric acid (HC1) was pooling in a spill containment area.

After investigating, workers determined that a 12,000 gallon HC1 above-ground storage tank was leaking at a rate of five gallons per minute. The chemical is 35% solution and is extremely corrosive.

Workers started off-loading the tank, which had approximately 9,000 gallons. An estimated 4,000 gallons of the liquid had been spilled into the secondary containment area.

Tucson Fire crews responded around 5 a.m. as a precautionary measure. They remained on scene until the leaking tank was emptied into other storage tanks.

No employees or firefighters were injured.

A fire erupted yesterday (26 May) morning in a chemical storage unit at the Sri Jayawardanepura University, Fire Service Department sources told The Nation. An emergency call was placed at around 11.30 a.m. yesterday to the Fire Service Department regarding a fire at the university, the source confirmed. A dispatch unit from the Kotte station and two units from the Main Fire Station were dispatched immediately, to quell the fire, he explained. No casualties were incurred due to the fire, since Firefighters were quick to arrive at the scene to put it out, informed sources in the University pointed out to The Nation.

When inquired as to the causes for the breakout of fire in a chemical storage unit, with a university campus, Fire Services officials said that no conclusive reasons were identified for its onset. However, they stated that the storage unit was flooded due to the recent rains that had most of Colombo under water. University sources also confirmed that the storage unit became flooded due to the rains.
When asked why a hazardous materials site, such as the storage unit, did not have adequate preventive measures against such inevitabilities, Fire officials stated that it was a serious risk that must have been addressed by the university administration.However the university sources declined to comment.

Around 100 residents and workers were evacuated after fire broke out in a waste plant sparking a chemical alert.

The blaze in a number of large oil drums caused plumes of black smoke visible from miles around as it spread through Arrow Environmental Services in West Bromwich.

Acrid smoke shot into the air from the fire, which started at around 1.45pm in part of the premises used to recycle waste oil.

See more pictures in our gallery to your right
Staff at the firm in Kelvin Way faced a huge clean-up today as oil had flooded from the building onto land outside. The cause is not yet known but it is suspected the hot weather may be to blame. Workers at the scene described how the flames escalated in seconds and a series of bangs followed.



Around 35 firefighters tackled the blaze at its height and hazardous materials officers were drafted in. Firefighter Steve Husbands said crews faced a fight to stop the waste oil entering water courses. Also an oxygen cylinder exploded, causing a fireball, and about seven other cylinders had to be removed amid fears they would also blow up.

Arrow declined to comment.

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."

A mercury leak inside a century-old clock at Charlestown’s Boston National Historical Park prompted a Level 3 hazmat response by Boston firefighters today after one worker came in close contact with the toxic silver liquid, officials said.

The incident started when a museum specialist, while categorizing and photographing an early 20th century grandfather clock, noticed roughly “two tablespoons” of mercury oozing from the artifact and, as a precaution, called the fire department, said Sean Hennessey, spokesman for the Boston National Historical Park.

A hazmat crew responded to the Third Avenue warehouse around 11:39 a.m., and quickly downgraded their response once they realized the minor spill was under control and no evacuation was necessary, said Boston fire spokesman Steve MacDonald.


One worker who came in close contact self-decontaminated, MacDonald said, simply by thoroughly washing his hands.

Hennessey said the clock contained two small vials of mercury which help balance its swinging pendulum. At some point, one of the vials cracked, and when the specialist moved the clock to take another photo, he saw the leak, Hennessey said.

A small fire erupted at the Montana Refining Company in Great Falls after a chemical leak at the plant on Thursday.

An MRC official says that a small tube leak fire occurred inside the heater fire box.

Great Falls Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Steve Hester says a flammable chemical called naptha overfilled and fire started burning into one of the stacks.

Water doused the flames and Hester said refinery officials just worked to keep the stack cool, and said this type of event isn't out of the ordinary.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A chemical spill closed about a mile-long portion of Tidwell in northeast Houston for hours on Thursday.

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The eastbound lanes of Tidwell Rd. between the Eastex Freeway and Lockwood were shut down due to a chemical spill.

According to the Houston Fire Department, it appeared to be some type of used oil product from a tanker truck. HFD responded to the report of a chemical spill in the 4100 block of Tidwell about 2:20pm Thursday.

Emergency services received a call at 11:47 BST on Thursday reporting a fire in a chemical lab in the David Keir building on Stranmillis Road.

Six fire engines, two "specialist appliances" and a mobile command unit went to the incident.

An investigation is under way to determine how the fire started.

In a statement, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue service said: "Fire crews dealt with a fire in a chemical storeroom of a laboratory on the third floor of the four-storey building.

"It was quite a challenging incident for firefighters to deal with due to the extensive size of the building and the nature of what was involved in the fire."

"Fire crews ventilated the building and the incident was dealt with at 16:10 BST. Early indications would suggest the fire was accidental."

No-one was injured during the alert. A spokesman for QUB said it was too early to say what caused the fire and that a storeroom had been extensively damaged.

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.

MIDLAND, Mich.—May 22, 2012—The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and The Pennsylvania State University are expanding their strategic partnership by launching a pilot program to increase safety awareness and practices in the university’s Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. The program will leverage key elements of Dow’s best-in-class practices to help elevate university laboratory safety.

In April, Dow announced a similar safety partnership pilot program with the University of Minnesota. This new partnership with Penn State reinforces Dow’s commitment to stimulate collaborative innovation with U.S. universities. Dow announced in October 2011 it would invest $25 million per year for 10 years among 11 academic institutions, including Penn State, to strengthen research in scientific fields important to Dow and to the nation’s future.

“A core part of our mission at Dow is to support universities and help them continue the tradition of excellence in chemical engineering, chemistry, and materials science,” said Dr. William F. Banholzer, Ph.D., executive vice president and Dow’s chief technology officer. “Dow recognizes that laboratory safety is a continuing challenge for universities everywhere, and we have the expertise to be part of the solution. This pilot program leverages Dow’s strength in creating and sustaining a culture of safety in our labs — a culture that centers on driving behavior toward incident prevention, with a high level of employee engagement.”

PLAQUEMINE, La. — Four Georgia Gulf contract employees are recovering after being exposed to chlorine at work.

WAFB TV reports (http://bit.ly/KnT0FD ) the accident happened at the chemical and vinyls plant in Plaquemine around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

A Georgia Gulf spokesman said the four were near a railcar when the chlorine was being offloaded, but they were not the ones handling it.

Parish officials said there was no need for road closures or evacuations.

Spill occurs at BP processing facility
The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A state agency says thousands of gallons of crude oil and oily water have spilled at a BP processing facility on the North Slope.

The Anchorage Daily News says a tank at Prudhoe Bay overflowed on Monday, spilling about 4,200 gallons of crude oil and oily water into a containment area. The overflow was stopped and the Department of Environmental Conservation says the liquids did not leach out onto the tundra.

Officials say instruments and valves used to control the level of fluids in the tank malfunctioned.

BP spokesman Steve Rinehart says an alarm went off. A BP worker checking on the alarm discovered the spill at the processing facility where oil, natural gas and water are separated.

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.

The Massachusetts state hazmat team suits up after a sulfuric acid spill at a Goddard Memorial Drive business.

Fire officials say a 250 gallon container of 50-percent sulfuric acid spilled Monday as workers were moving with a forklift and punctured it.

“It was punctured somewhere down about 6 inches from the bottom. A good deal spilled out and leaked on the asphalt,” says Deputy Chief John Sullivan.

The business, Pan-Glo New England, was evacuated.

(NECN) - Crews rushed to the scene of a tier three hazmat situation at an industrial complex in Southbridge, Mass.

The call came in around 7:40 a.m. on Monday, for 15 Wells St.

The Southbridge Fire Department confirms there was a chlorine gas leak at the Schott Fiber Optics.

The company produces fiber optic materials there.

The building was evacuated, but no injuries were reported.

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

Residents who are on a private water system on Trout Lake are warned not to drink the water after a tanker truck overturned in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 63 north of Silver Lady Lane.

The crash at about 8:30 a.m. caused fuel and a load of formaldehyde the truck was carrying to spill directly into the lake.

The North Bay and District Public Health Unit released a statement saying the municipal drinking water supply is not in danger.

Anyone using a private water system must find another water source until further notice. The public is advised not to swim in Trout Lake or use the water for pets or livestocks.

WINDER, Ga. — A crash and fire involving a tractor-trailer -- and fears of a toxic chemical release -- shut down both lanes of a nine-mile stretch of Interstate 85 northeast of Atlanta for a time.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the truck caught fire early Tuesday morning near Georgia Highway 211, and authorities were concerned about possibly hazardous chemicals on the truck.

Barrow fire Lt. Scott Dakin tells WSB-TV that a rear tire on the truck caught fire, and the fire spread into the trailer. Barrow County fire officials said the blaze was under control by 5 a.m.

Chemical companies should always assess and, when possible, adopt inherently safer manufacturing processes that minimize or eliminate hazards, says a National Research Council (NRC) panel in a May 10 report. The committee says chemical manufacturers don’t always consider inherently safer processes and many lack a clear, consistent corporate policy to conduct an adequate analysis.
Inherently safer processes are a hierarchy of manufacturing practices—such as minimizing or finding substitutes for toxic materials—that lower the threat of plant hazards or accidents, which affect workers and community residents. The goal is to eliminate hazards, dangerous materials, or processes, rather than to manage and control them, explains Elsa Reichmanis, the NRC committee’s chair and a chemistry professor at Georgia Institute of Technology.

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.

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.

A chemical fire in Bristol, Pennsylvania led several residents to contact police Wednesday complaining about a sulfur odor in the air, according to officials.

   In a press release Wednesday, police said that the odor reported by residents could be traced to a chemical fire overnight at a Dow Chemical facility in Pennsylvania.The odor was reported in several central and southern New Jersey communities, according to the company.

   In a statement, the company said that two holding tanks at the Rohm and Hass Bristol Plant containing two different materials, ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate, were struck by lightning at 3:35 a.m. and ignited.

   The chemicals involved are used in the manufacturing of paint, according to the company.

(Medina)- The Medina Fire Department along with three other area fire departments battled a blaze behind the Medina Steakhouse on W. Liberty Street.

Fire Chief Bob Painter says the fire started around 10:30am Wednesday at an unoccupied warehouse used by the company Free Oil. The building housed chemical solvents. Forty-five firefighters worked to put out the fire.



No one was injured but the building is a total loss. The walls collapsed and even melted some of the siding at the steakhouse and a nearby home.

It's not known yet what caused the blaze.

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

Painesville Township Fire Department and Lubrizol Corp. emergency personnel responded to the release of a chemical compound Wednesday at the company's Painesville Township plant.

According to a Lubrizol news release:

About 8 a.m., the fitting on top of a tank truck was damaged while positioning the truck for unloading. As a result, a small amount of hydrazine vapor was released.

Emergency personnel responded immediately and implemented existing emergency procedures, including activation of a water deluge safety system.

The incident was under control by 8:54 a.m. Representatives from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Public Utilities Commission of Ohio inspected the site and were satisfied with response and management of the incident.

There were no reported injuries and there was no evidence of any vapors leaving the plant property.

Members of Lincoln Fire and Rescue's Hazardous Materials Team responded Wednesday night to a chemical spill at Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center.
Monitoring equipment mounted in the hospital’s lab detected a small amount of ethylene oxide, which is used to sterilize equipment, at 9:52 p.m., Lincoln Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Pat Borer said.
The amount detected was below the guidelines for permissible levels set by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, he said.
Borer said the staff was calibrating equipment when the chemical was detected. While the lab was evacuated, the rest of the hospital continued to operate  normally.
Hazmat team members entered the room to monitor for the chemical but did not detect any. They allowed  the room to be reoccupied and left the scene after 45 minutes, Borer said.

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) - Fire investigators return to the scene Wednesday of a five-alarm fire at the Doyle Manufacturing complex at 40th and Broadway in Quincy.
...
A Doyle spokesman says the fire was in a building where they paint fertilizer equipment.

Tipton says that building contained flammable materials like aerosol cans, which led to several explosions inside.

"It's always a dangerous situation when you come on a manufacturing facility because you don't know what's inside at first and the first moments are a little bit anxious when you first start," said Tipton.

Tipton says the metal roof on that building collapsed on top of the fire, making it difficult to fight the flames. 

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) -- No injuries are reported in an explosion at a biodiesel plant in Mason City.

The Globe Gazette in Mason City says the explosion happened late Tuesday afternoon at the Soy Energy plant on the city's southwest side. The newspaper says fire trucks and firefighters are on the west side of the plant, but no damage or smoke was visible. The explosion was reported about 6 p.m.

The fire department had no immediate details on what happened. Soy Energy produces biodiesel from soybeans and corn stillage.

LSB Industries said its El Dorado chemical facility in Arkansas suffered significant damage to the DSN concentrated nitric acid plant and surrounding equipment when a reactor exploded Tuesday morning.

There were no injuries to employees or anyone in the El Dorado community, the company said, adding that it believes there was no environmental release.

LSB is investigating the cause of the event and the extent of the damages, it said.

LSB said it does not have an estimate on the extent of the damages or the repair time. However, the El Dorado facility is out of operation at the present time due to the damage.

Lightning appparently ignited a fuel tank at Dow Chemical Co. in Croydon early this morning, touching off a three-alarm blaze that sent a large orange ball of flame into the predawn sky.

Firefighters from around the area rushed to the large plant at Routes 413 and State Road in Bucks County, less than a mile from the Burlington-Bristol bridge. The county's hazardous waste material team was also called to the scene,

The fire erupted at about 4 a.m. A large black plume of smoke extended high into the sky above the orange flames. Firefighters battled the blaze not only with water, but with foam.

Robert Miller, 49, of Linden Street in Bristol, said he was awoken by a large noise and was not sure if it was thunder or something else.

"The minute it stopped" he said, referring to the thunder or explosion, "the fire alarm went off immediately. The sirens went off like crazy - like I've never heard them before."

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.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A fire with flames 100 to 200 feet high erupted Friday at an oil well east of Cheyenne owned by SM Energy.

The fire at 1781 County Road 136 started in an oil treater containing 20 to 250 gallons of an oil and water mixture, Laramie County Fire District 2 spokesman Lew Simpson said. The treater overflowed and was ignited.

An oil treater removes sediment and water from crude oil before it is transported to refineries.

"It ignited, and it was threatening about 42,000 gallons of other oil fuel stored nearby," Simpson said. "We managed to control it — we shut off the fuel to the fire."

About 60 firefighters responded to the scene from several agencies, including six Laramie County fire districts, the Torrington Fire Department and F.E. Warren Air Force Base. Firefighters from the local Frontier Oil refinery also helped out.

The fire was extinguished in about an hour. No injuries were reported.

A chemical leak on board a container ship at Sydney's Port Botany has now been made safe.

The German-registered 34,600-tonne California Senator docked on Monday morning from Fremantle with a 1000-litre storage drum leaking nitric acid in the hold.

The ship's captain had called ahead on Sunday to warn authorities.

Firefighters scrambled aboard about 1am (AEST) to decant the contents of the drum and contain the leak.

"The container of nitric acid has now been made safe," Superintendent Ian Krimmer, from Fire and Rescue NSW, said on Monday afternoon.

"One ruptured container inside was located.

"Contents have all been emptied, all the contaminated products have been removed by a contractor.

LINCOLN, NEB. –  A collision involving two large trucks has spilled a hazardous chemical into Nebraska Highway 2 in Lincoln.

Lincoln fire captain Eric Jones told the Journal Star that a semi carrying 16 250-gallon tanks of boiler cleaner rear-ended a large flatbed truck Saturday afternoon. One of the tanks of cleaner ruptured and the chemical spilled onto highway.

The westbound lanes of the highway were closed Saturday afternoon as crews worked to contain the spill.

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.

BOSTON (CBS) – The state Department Of Transportation has decided to ban trucks carrying hazardous materials, including gasoline and heating oil, from traveling through Boston between 6 a.m and 8 p.m.

Mayor Menino has been fighting for several years for a ban on hazmat trucks from city streets.

He calls the decision a victory for the people of Boston.

“Vehicles carrying hazardous materials through the City pose a significant public safety threat to residents of our effected neighborhoods, as well as to commuters and other daily visitors to Downtown Boston,” Menino’s statement said.

Trucks delivering to or picking up from Boston will still be allowed on the roads.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The chemical industry needs guidance in choosing alternative processing methods to reduce or eliminate hazards, a national panel said in a report released Friday.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations require chemical companies to follow certain procedures to ensure manufacturing processes are safe. But the report by the National Research Council said the industry lacks common practice protocols and understanding to identify safer processes.

It recommends that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board or other entity develop a plan to help chemical plant managers choose alternative processes to reduce or eliminate hazards.

One method, known as an "inherently safer process" assessment, aims to minimize or eliminate a hazard. But the assessment does not always provide clear guidance. The report said switching to a non-flammable solvent in a process would remove a fire hazard. But if the solvent is toxic, a new hazard is created.

Use of inherently safer process strategies would reduce the number of vulnerable areas around a company's facilities, which would decrease the scope of emergency preparedness programs. But it potentially could narrow the focus too much and overlook certain outcomes, the report said.

VISTA, Calif. -- An explosion at a spa manufacturing factory blew a 20x20 foot hole in the roof of a Vista business around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
The explosion occurred inside a container at Watkins Manufacturing Inc., located at 1280 Park Center Drive.
According to 10News, investigators aren't sure what caused the explosion, but the 8,000 gallon container filled with chemicals was cleaned early Thursday and it was that container that exploded late Thursday night.
When Carlsbad and Vista fire units arrived, they had toxic smoke wafting from the remains of the building, as well as water running from the building to a storm drain at 100 gallons per minute.
Fire officials called Camp Pendleton HAZMAT, as well as San Diego County Health, and then pulled their units across the street to a safe distance fearing another explosion.
No one was inside the building at the time and no injuries were reported.

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
Sha

A semi trailer burst into flames on the lot of a shipping service center in Salt Lake City on Thursday morning.

Firefighters say that when they arrived on scene of the fire, located near 1900 South Industrial Road (1900 West), at around 10 a.m., the semi was fully engulfed in flames.

Investigators say there was an acid spill during the truck’s previous run and the chemicals used to clean the spill combined, causing heat that ignited the fire. Firefighters were able to put out the blaze and no one was injured.

“The chemicals combined, produced a lot of heat and when the new load was put on, there’s a spontaneous combustion that produced a fire,” said Jason Asay, Salt Lake City Fire Dept.

A hazmat team was called in to clean up possible hazardous substances, but the cargo only contained packages of batteries and baby food.

Downers Grove, IL —

Downers Grove fire officials said roads have been reopened following a chemical spill at the Flavorchem Corp., 1525 Brook Drive, Downers Grove, located just north of the Finley Square Mall shopping center.

HAZMAT units were called out after a 55-gallon drum of bleach ruptured, fire officials said.

Flavorchem creates and manufactures solutions for food and beverage applications, including flavor and color development, formulations for nutritional and functional purposes, and works with masking and sweetener technologies.

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.

A toxic leak forced the evacuation of a factory in St. Jean sur Richelieu Tuesday night.

The workplace accident happened at the Thomas & Betts company at 100 Longtin St. around 11:30 p.m.

Alarms went off as soon as the hydrogen cyanide was released, and 100 people inside the building went outside without any injuries.

A Hazardous Materials crew was quick to ventilate the building, and make sure no pockets of the gas remained.

Hydrogen cyanide is normally a liquid, but boils at slightly above room temperature. It is commonly used in electroplating.

By 5 a.m. the hazmat team had given the all clear and people were allowed to return inside.

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.

A report of an acid spill prompted the evacuation of two buildings and a HazMat response at the Illinois Institute of Technology on the South Side on Tuesday afternoon.

About 1:30 p.m., a Level 2 HazMat response was called for a reported acid spill in the basement of 3110 S. State St., Fire Media Affairs spokesman Will Knight said. That building, as well as a second at 3105 S. State St., were evacuated.

But a spokesman for the school said there was no spill. The HazMat response was secured about 3:40 p.m.

Jeanne Hartig, vice president of communications at IIT, said students were conducting a regular chemical inventory in the Engineering 1 Building when they found a safety container holding a material used for etching metals.

The students were unfamiliar with the substance and contacted the school’s Public Safety department to be “extra cautious,” she said.

A source said the students were checking materials in the science building when they found expired and possibly dangerous materials, but Hartig would not confirm that information, though she said there had not been an acid spill.

The police Bomb and Arson Unit was removing the material from the building with firefighters’ assistance, Fire Media Director Larry Langford said. About 200 people were evacuated from the two buildings.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- 
An explosion at a Volusia County business early Tuesday may have been caused by an ammonia leak, investigators said.
It happened around 3:30 a.m. at a Reddy Ice in the Airport Industrial Park, just south of New Smyrna Municipal Airport.

Hazardous materials crews shut down the industrial complex as they cleaned up the scene. The complex has since reopened.
According to New Smyrna Beach fire Chief David McAllister, a police officer was conducting his regular beat check Tuesday morning, when he said he smelled the unmistakable odor of ammonia.

An explosion at a South Seattle gas processing facility Monday afternoon caused a lot of noise and little else.

Just before 1:30 p.m., Seattle firefighters were called to the Airgas facility at 7700 14th Avenue South following an explosion there.

Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said the explosion occurred at an acetylene handing facility inside a room built to contain explosions. Six employees inside the building were uninjured.

Firefighters cleared a larger area around the facility following the explosion while they checked for gas leaks. The explosion damaged nearby windows and the building itself, but no injuries were reported.

SIKESTON, Mo.  — Sikeston Public Safety is reporting an active Haz-Mat incident at Sikeston’s Board of Municipal Utilities Power Plant.
Around 4:30am Sunday, the Sikeston BMU Power Plant reported a trailer containing hydrochloric acid exploded at their facility.  The catastrophic failure of this container resulted in a 7,500 gallon spill.  Sikeston DPS immediately dispatched their Haz-Mat team to the site to evaluate the incident.
It was learned that the spill was confined to the immediate area of the incident and no one was injured during the release.  It isn’t known at this time what caused the pressurized container to fail, but we know that fire was not the cause.  This type of chemical release requires a relatively short evacuation distance, which fell inside the property of the BMU facility.  At no time was anyone outside the property lines of the power plant in any danger.  Residents who live nearby the Sikeston Power Plant are completely free of any danger.  In addition the Power plant did not suffer any significant damage.
According to BMU, this incident has had no effect on their operation.  Every year BMU has a planned outage to conduct yearly maintenance at their facility.  The Power Plant was currently going through this annual maintenance when this incident occurred.  As a result, this incident did not disrupt their service.

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.

The crew members of a container vessel had anxious moments following fire in a portion of the vessel, which was in the deep sea about 50 nautical miles away from the Mangalore coast. In a release, the Coast Guard said the situation was under control and the ship's crew members had been able to partially extinguish the fire.

The Coast Guard said its Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Mumbai received distress message from m.v. CAP Norte around 10 a.m. about fire in the vessel's cargo containers that contained 15 tonnes of polyamide sulphide chemical.

The Coast Guard's fast patrol vessel ICGS Savithri Phule was sent from the Mangalore coast and it reached the place around 1 p.m.

TUCSON - Reports of "blue powder," later determined to be an ammonia-based fertilizer, closed the Avra Valley Road on-ramp at Interstate 10 for about two hours this morning as hazmat teams stabilized the chemical and cleared the roadway.

At about 9 a.m. this morning, crews from the Northwest Fire District's Hazmat team were called to the I-10 on-ramp at Avra Valley Road after there was a report of "blue powder" falling on the roadway from a truck, according to a NWFD news release.

Crews responded and as they were cleaning the scene, two members felt burning in their throats. A Hazmat team arrived and tested the chemical to determine that it was an ammonia-based fertilizer. The Hazmat team, in protective gear, stabilized the chemical and reopened the roadway within two hours of the call.

A hazmat fire was reported at Hair Systems Inc., a multinational distributor of hair products whose warehouse is located at 30 Park Ave. in Englishtown, at approximately 12:30 p.m. Friday, an Englishtown Police Department dispatcher confirmed.
...
The fire began in back of the warehouse in a section of the building called a "powder room" where some type of manufacturing or packaging was located, according to Hall. The building is mostly used for storage, little  distribution is done at the warehouse, but chemical research is done at the facility, Hall said. A vat containing an oxidizing chemical ignited in the powder room, and the fire was mostly contained to the vat.

The fireman moved the vat out of the "powder room" and used copious amounts of water to douse the flames which sparked a fire due to a chemical reaction, which Hall said was the only treatment to combat such a type of fire.

Heavy smoke conditions were observed and a decontamination trailer, supplied by Manalapan Township Fire Company #1, was activated for the fireman who directly combatted the hazmat fire.

Hazmat crews rushed to a Toronto high school on Friday after a reported chemical leak forced the building's evacuation.

....TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird said it appears that a chemical valve broke in the school's pool area, causing the leak.

Toronto Fire officials said they received a report of a large gas leak under the school. When they arrived they found a chlorine tank had cracked loose while located near a tank of acid.

Fire officials said they found no fumes and no one was injured, but there had been concerns that the two chemicals would mix together

Workers evacuated a Salt Lake City chemical company after thousands of gallons of acid spilled Friday afternoon, but no one was injured.

The nearly 2,000 gallon spill happened at Brenntag Pacific about 1:30 p.m., said Salt Lake City Fire spokesman Jasen Asay.

Fire crews responded to the accident at 2334 W. Directors Row (1100 S), just west of Interstate-215.

Asay said sulfuric acid spilled after two workers were unloading the chemical from a rail car outside the facility and there was a "problem with the hose."

About 10 people inside the building evacuated before fire crews arrived. It was the only building evacuated.

"They followed proper procedure and did the right thing," Asay said.

GALLIPOLIS FERRY — A chemical leak at the ICL-IP plant in Gallipolis Ferry led to a shelter-in-place order in surrounding areas, including across the Ohio River in Gallia County.

The leak occurred around 3:18 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

According to a press release from ICL America, Inc., the plant experienced an “emergency event” that involved the release of phosphorus trichloride liquid and hydrochloric acid fumes due to a pump failure.

The company says the liquid phosphorus trichloride release was contained on site, but the hydrochloric acid fumes left the site.

Point Pleasant Fire Chief Jeremy Bryant and his department were among the first responders dispatched to the scene. Bryant said it appeared the chemical cloud traveled north of the plant but appeared to dissipate near R and L Trucking along W.Va. 2.

The shelter-in-place order lasted around 30 minutes.

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.

Police say two students have been taken into custody after two chemical-filled bottles exploded at a Memphis high school.
Memphis police said in a news release Thursday night that two 18-year-old students of Craigmont High School were charged with aggravated assault, felony reckless endangerment and possession of a prohibited weapon.
The high school was evacuated just before noon in what school authorities called a prank explosion. Officials say an assistant principal with asthma went to the hospital after inhaling smoke produced by the mixture. Police said a bomb threat had been called in to the school beforehand.
Shortly after, another bottle exploded about 15 miles away outside a Kroger grocery store. Kroger spokesman Joe Bell says a customer accidentally left behind a bottle with dry ice. No one was injured.

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — A ferocious fire has gutted an industrial building and damaged several others in central Pennsylvania.

The three-alarm blaze started about 10 p.m. Wednesday at the former Lear Corp. building in Carlisle, Cumberland County.

More than 100 firefighters from several counties were called in to help. A series of booms were heard throughout the night. It's believed propane tanks stored inside the buildings exploded.

Some residents in the area were evacuated. Several homes sustained minor damage.

The complex has had a variety of owners in recent years. Carlisle Events, owners of the local fairgrounds, bought the property in 2010 and planned to redevelop it.

No one was hurt. Investigators are trying to determine a cause but the fire was so severe they may never be able to determine what sparked it.

Dow Chemical and the University of Minnesota (UMN) announced on Monday a pilot program to improve laboratory safety in the university’s chemistry and chemical engineering laboratories.

UMN is one of the universities benefiting from a program Dow announced last year in which the company is investing $25 million per year for 10 years in research programs at 11 academic institutions. The new safety program is independent of that effort but germinated in the relationship established between Dow and the university, says Frank S. Bates, head of UMN’s chemical engineering and materials science department.

The safety program also extends beyond research programs sponsored by Dow. Central to the effort is a Joint Safety Team (JST) made up of the safety officers from every chemistry and chemical engineering research group. “All of those safety officers will be interacting with Dow and working together to learn best safety practices” from the company, says William B. Tolman, chair of the chemistry department.

PAWTUCKET – Shea High School Principal Chris Lord reported Wednesday morning that a student brought several vials full of unidentifiable contents into school.

A school resource officer, as a precaution, contacted a hazmat team and the contents of the vials were inspected and found to be harmless, according to Lord.

Lord told The Breeze that a male student picked up the vials from a facility down by the Blackstone River and carried them to school even though he didn't know what was in them. Disciplinary action was pending, he said.

"Common sense is not so common anymore," said Lord. "He's been educated today though."

Shea was not evacuated, according to its principal.

"At no time was safety in the building compromised," said Lord. "Officer Pereira is commended for this precautionary action and the school day will proceed normally."

HOUSTON - An accident involving an overturned tanker truck caused the total closure of Interstate 10 east of Houston on Wednesday morning.

The crash could leave the interstate shut down in both directions for a couple days. The Chambers County Sheriff’s Office says the accident could be cleaned up sometime between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Authorities in Jefferson County say the truck wrecked at mile marker 833 between Winnie and FM 365, about 60 miles east of Houston. It was first reported around 7 a.m.

Hazmat was called in after the tanker spilled ethanol all over the roadway. Residents within a two mile radius were asked to evacuate or shelter-in-place along with a nearby high school.

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.

A tractor-trailer rig leaked potassium hydroxide at West Side Choctaw Travel Plaza on Tuesday, according to the Durant Fire Department.

Firefighters were dispatched to the business at 11:32 a.m. and when they arrived, approximately 25 gallons of the chemical had leaked onto the parking lot, according to a fire department report. The leak was coming from a control valve under the trailer which had been repaired.

Firefighters were not able to stop the leak, so they put trash cans underneath it. The report stated that the chemical was spilling out at approximately 30 gallons per minute, and firefighters caught about 225 gallons with the trash cans.

A chemical clean-up company was called to clean up the scene and firefighters assisted the crew until leaving at 8:40 p.m.

- The Longmont Fire Department's hazardous material unit responded to Twin Peaks Charter Academy, 340 S. Sunset St., on Wednesday afternoon after school officials found a small container of oxidized sodium.

The sodium was in a locked science chemical storage area, according to school officials.

Principal B.J. Buchmann said the substance was discovered at about 12:30 p.m. Students were moved to a different area of the school for the rest of the day, he said.

After school was dismissed, firefighters removed the substance from the school, Buchmann said.

LAS CRUCES - Ten to 15 gallons of an industrial solvent spilled out of the back of a tractor-trailer Wednesday afternoon at the TravelCenters of America truck stop at North Motel Boulevard.
A Las Cruces Fire Department hazmat team contained and stopped the leak, and there was no health risk to the public and no injuries were reported, Las Cruces Fire Department Lt. Michael Martinez said.
Las Cruces police responded, and directed traffic in the area while the hazmat team worked on the spill. An ambulance was also on standby. The dimethyl sulfoxide, a colorless liquid used in paint strippers and some medicines, spilled out of 55-gallon drum that had been stored in the back of the truck, Martinez said.

A chemical spill early Wednesday morning at a Bay City plant was contained several hours later.

At 6:05 a.m., plant workers reported a butanol leak at the butanol unit at the Oxea Plant near Bay City. Butanol is a solvent used in everyday products, such as paints and coatings.

No one was injured and everyone on site was accounted for, according to a company news release.

The leak was confined to the butanol area.

The area was closely monitored by the company's emergency response team and there was no off-site impact, according to the release. The incident was under investigation and all work has been resumed at the plant.

The initial call to the Mineola Fire Department began at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday with a request to assist ETMC EMS on Farm-to-Market 1799 in Wood County. It was reported that the incident involved a man being exposed to a toxic substance. The toxic substance was reported to emergency service personnel as Temik, which MFD Public Information Officer Steve Finley said is reported by some resources as one of the most toxic poisons that may have ever been produced.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., the Quitman Fire Department was called to respond to ETMC Quitman to assist with the clean up efforts inside the emergency room after the patient was treated there.
After Quitman Fire Department assessed the situation they requested the assistance of the Mineola, Hainesville and Longview Fire Departments. The Longview Fire Department was specially requested for their Haz-Mat team and expertise in these operations.
Through a combined effort, the emergency responders determined that the threat of potential contamination to the emergency personnel who treated the exposed patient warranted immediate action. Additionally, the evaluation of the incident necessitated the temporary closure of the ETMC Quitman emergency room.

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.

A fire at the Arizona Chemical plant in Springfield Tuesday was quickly put out.

But there are still questions over how the fire started.

Around one o’clock, emergency workers responded to a fire originally reported at Rock-Tenn paper mill. The location was quickly changed to Arizona Chemical.

Firefighters from Springfield and Panama City quickly jumped into action to put out to blaze.

Both units, along with Arizona Chemical’s in-house fire and rescue team, had the fire under control within twenty minutes.

While the location and source of the fire are known, the cause is not.

"We're going to do a root cause find out what the problem is and make sure that this doesn't happen again to the best of our ability. But the good thing is no injuries, no incidences, no destruction, and everyone is safe." said DeVaughn Stephens of Arizona Chemical.

At the time of the fire, there was supposedly a lot of tall-oil in the pond, which is quite flammable.

GLADSTONE, OR (KPTV) -
A milk tanker-truck crashed Sunday afternoon on Southeast 82nd Drive near Interstate 205, spilling about 100 gallons of milk on the roadway.

The truck was rounding the curve on the exit from Interstate 205 northbound to Southeast 82nd Drive when the milk in the rear trailer sloshed and caused it to tip.

The milk was considered a hazardous material because it was not pasteurized and therefore may have contained E. Coli.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — A big rig carrying flammable chemicals slammed into the center divider of Highway 680 near Pleasanton late Sunday, jackknifing and triggering a traffic slowdown that lasted for nearly seven hours, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Battalion Chief Jack Neiman-Kimel said the accident required the deployment of a hazmat team because included among the truck’s load was “a couple drums of some hazardous material. He has a drum of lithium and a drum of Trimethylgallium.”
Both chemicals are used in the production process of semiconductors and electric batteries and can catch fire when exposed to air.
Neiman-Kimel said about 100 gallons of diesel fuel did leak out of the truck and also had to be cleaned up.

SPARTA — Water from wet paper towels that accidentally mixed with a chemical compound used during a chemistry experiment at the Sussex County Technical School has been determined to be the cause of a fire at the Sparta school in March, the county prosecutor’s office said today.
Zinc metal powder was being used in an electroplating experiment when it was mixed in a 30-gallon plastic trash container with wet paper towels used by students during the cleanup of the experiment, said First Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller.
The mishap occurred despite a warning on the jar containing the zinc metal powder that says there is a danger of spontaneous combustion if the chemical becomes damp and comes in contact with air, he said.
No charges have been filed in connection with the blaze.
The fire broke out in a science lab on the second floor of the school at about 8:30 p.m. on March 14 when a fire alarm was activated by smoke alarms, police said. The Sparta school was closed from March 15 to March 26, postponing graduation until June 21.

A fire that ignited accidentally as a chemist was testing diesel fuel did an estimated $75,000 damage early Monday afternoon in a laboratory on BNSF Railway property, authorities said. No one was hurt.

Shift Commander Mike Thompson, of the Topeka Fire Department, said firefighters were called at 12:21 p.m. to the scene, which Investigator Michael Martin identified as being in a ventilation hood within the BNSF Rail Yard Chemical Testing Lab at 100 N.E. Jefferson Trafficway, Building 8.

Thompson said a chemist had been testing fuel when the hood that pulled the exhaust out of the building failed, igniting the blaze. Smoke damage was reported throughout the building, he said.

Martin said fire suppression crews arrived to find heavy black smoke coming from the building’s roof vents.

“Fire crews initiated an interior attack of the fire and quickly extinguished the blaze,” he said. “A primary and secondary search of the lab revealed the occupants had self-evacuated prior to the arrival of the Topeka Fire Department.”

Martin said investigation revealed the fire originated in a fuel testing containment area.

“The fire was determined to be accidental in nature, and associated with the failure of the testing area ventilation system,” he said.

Martin said no hazardous or volatile chemicals posed any risk to the public as a result of the blaze.

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.