CALGARY — The city fire department was called Wednesday to clean up a toxic spill near the airport that spread into the storm sewer system.

The Hazardous Materials Response Team were dispatched about 5 p.m. to a lab at the 4400 block of 14th Street N.E.

Crews were told up to 53 litres of toluene had spilled and some of the liquid may have entered the storm sewer system.

Investigators were able to soak up much of the product with absorbent material, but they did find some in the sewer system.

The area was cordoned off due to the chemical’s flammability. A contract company was called to vacuum the liquid from the sewer.

Cleveland Fire Department rushed to the scene of a reported chemical fire at Mueller Co. Saturday afternoon. According to 911 dispatchers, the call came in at 2:38 p.m.

Mueller is located just off Industrial Drive in southwest Cleveland.

Dispatchers were notified the chemical involved was Toluene.

Firefighters were able to vent the plant after opening a roof panel. Thick smoke covered the area after the fire was vented.

Off-duty firefighters were paged to man CFD’s Main Station while ladders and pumpers remained on the scene several hours Saturday. Dispatchers noted the fire was contained within approximately two hours.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Dozens of firefighters and a HazMat crew responded to a chemical leak near Bush Intercontinental Airport Monday.


It happened at around 11:15am at Dyna Drill Technology in the 4600 block of World Houston Parkway, just south of the big airport. A chemical reaction produced thick, light yellow smoke at the facility. The leaking chemicals were identified as Toluene, Thixon and Zonyl.

By 3:20pm, the Houston Fire Department had the leak secured. All employees were accounted for and workers exiting the plant were decontaminated.

John Wilkinson Jr. , chief of the Lake Dreamland Fire District said the department was notified at 4:57 a.m. that there was a a report of leak.

A release valve was triggered when one of the tanks at the plant over-pressurized, he said. The venting of the vapor lasted 105 seconds.

The leak triggered a safety procedure at plant that sprayed water on the area to reduce the vapors.

The fire department responded as required, but the leak was handled through plant systems, Wilkinson said.

They were continuing to monitor the area.

Lake Dreamland firefighters responded early this morning to a Rubbertown plant after reports of a toluene vapor leak inside the plant.

A chemical spill at a Rubbertown plant Thursday evening sent one worker to the hospital but was quickly contained and posed no threat to the public, officials said.

An unknown amount of toluene was spilled at the American Synthetic Rubber Company at 4500 Camp Ground Road, according to MetroSafe Communications. The incident was reported at 6:09 p.m.

Three employees came in contact with the chemical, and one was taken to the hospital as a precaution because the liquid got in his eye, said Chief John Wilkinson of the Lake Dreamland Fire Department.

The spill, which may have been caused by a broken flange, was contained in one building at the plant, Wilkinson said.

Tuesday's explosion in New Iberia is raising concerns from doctors and chemists. Some of those chemicals involved in the explosion could cause side effects for people nearby. A few of the chemicals used at the plant include xylene, toluene and methanol. All, highly explosive chemicals. Now, residents are voicing some health complaints in the aftermath.

"It's unusual," one resident said. "I wasn't feeling the same after I left."

He complained of being light-headed and experienced some headaches. It's statements like that are common in New Iberia now, after a chemical explosion rocked some nearby homes.
Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality says air measurements in the area are at safe levels but experts say there are some risks.

"If you around this fire and breathed in some of the smoke and fumes, you'll probably have some symptoms," Dr. Gary Guidry said.

Dr. Guidry is a pulmonologist at Lafayette General. In short, he studies lungs.
Guidry says if chemicals like xylene and methanol are airborne, it won't take much to start seeing side effects.

"Headache, nausea, vomiting, CNS (central nervous system) depression," he listed. "For toluene, they can go into pulmonary edema which is fluid building up in the lungs."

The list of possible problems doesn't just stop with people. Chemist Wilma Subra says the affected area also includes local farms and food supplies.

NEW IBERIA, La. (AP) — A fire at a southern Louisiana plant where chemicals are blended and stored for oilfield operations was being allowed to burn itself out Wednesday before investigators enter the facility to search for a cause.
Tuesday afternoon's explosion and fire at the Multi-Chem Corp. plant in New Iberia forced residents within a 1-mile radius of the area to evacuate. There were no injuries.
The evacuation remained in effect Wednesday morning. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality staffers at the scene have identified xylene, toluene and methanol among chemicals at the site, department spokeswoman Jean Kelly said. All three can pose health risks.
However, the corporation and the DEQ said air quality measurements in the evacuation area were at safe levels as of Wednesday morning and that air monitoring was continuing.

SAVANNAH, Ga. --
A tanker truck caught fire at the Colonial Oil Company on North Lathrop Avenue Friday afternoon.  

Toluene, a chemical used in gasoline blending, was being unloaded when a spark ignited it.

Authorities say that one person has been killed and two others were injured.

Fire crews have since put out the fire and applied foam to the truck and a nearby filling platform. 

No evacuations of the business or nearby residential neighborhoods were necessary.  Authorities day there is no environmental danger from the Toluene.

Authorities are on the scene of a chemical spill inside a building in the Lafayette Regional Industrial Park.

No one was injured in the incident, which happened in a building that produces cosmetics and cosmetic materials.

Alton Trahan, spokesman for the Lafayette Fire Department, said the chemical is toluene and is leaking from a container in the building.

The building has been evacuated, and employees in surrounding buildings are being told to remain inside. The chemical is considered highly flammable and has leaked into portions of the first and second floors.

This is not the first time authorities have been called to the business for a similar situation, Trahan said.

HYDERABAD: Two heavy vehicles overturned in the city in separate incidents, creating chaos on arterial roads on Thursday.

Motorists suffered a lot as traffic got diverted after heavy vehicles turned turtle on the main roads in Habsiguda and Saifabad on Thursday morning.

At about 5.30 am, a tanker (AP 16 TW 6433) carrying 25 tons of highly inflammable `Toulene' chemical from Kakinada port to Jeedimetla overturned after hitting the retaining wall of the Tarnaka flyover at its entry point. As a result, motorists were forced to take a detour and travel 13 kilometres extra to reach their workplaces.

Immediately after the accident, the driver fled from the spot as the chemical began leaking onto the Uppal main road.

Police were immediately alerted about the incident and after consulting the fire department officials, cops learnt that the material was highly inflammable and immediately blocked the road at Habsiguda and Mettuguda ends and diverted traffic through Nacharam.

It’s been an unusually cold December thus far, and the frigid conditions have caused problems countywide – including the spillage of up to 400 gallons of a volatile chemical.

Three Nashville-based emergency management agencies were called but no local officials were notified of the spill, which took place at Quad/Graphics in Dickson and involved the same chemical that severely burned and ultimately killed an employee in August.

The spill occurred early Dec. 10 at the Quad/Graphics plant in the county industrial park when an ice chunk fell and struck a handle, opening a valve on the facility’s solvent recovery system and released 300-400 gallons of toluene, a chemical solvent.

Claire Ho, a Quad/Graphics corporate spokesperson, said the chemical drained across a concrete pad and into a grate, which led to a “drainage ditch” where the spill collected.

The ditch and grate are not connected to the public sewer system, Ho said.

FIREFIGHTERS were called to a chemical spillage at a printing firm in Pinvin on Saturday night.

Hereford and Worcester fire and rescue service went to Polestar Varnicoat, Station Road, Pinvin, at around 11pm after reports of a spillage of the solvent, toluene, mixed with water within the building and outside.

While staff from Polestar pumped the chemical into storage tanks, fire crews were on hand with foam jets in case of fire.

Sugar Creek, MO —
Three railroad cars that caught fire had stopped burning as of late Saturday afternoon.

Numerous BNSF rail cars derailed in Sugar Creek near the BP refinery located near the Missouri River around 1:45 a.m. Saturday.

The derailment started a fire on one of the cars, causing it to explode. Thick black smoke and intense flames billowed out, fueled by what the car was hauling: toluene, a chemical used in paint thinners, according to Sugar Creek authorities.

The toluene rail car sparked a nearby car, carrying animal fat, and then a third car, carrying oil.

No one was hurt and no residents had to be evacuated.
Authorities initially let the cars burn. Later in the morning, firefighters cooled the remaining tanks to ensure other cars didn’t catch fire.

A HAZMAT unit was called in to clean up the site and ensure chemicals from derailed cars did not spread into nearby waterways.

Officials took air quality tests that found the air was not toxic.

EDMONTON — A flash chemical fire at an southeast Edmonton laboratory put one man in hospital with burns Tuesday.
A Maxxam Analytics Petroleum Technology Centre employee was transferring a solvent called toluene at about 2:30 p.m., when the chemical caught fire, burning his face.
Fire crews arrived at lab, near 67th Avenue and 50th Street, to find that the building’s sprinkler system had put the fire out.
The injured Maxxam Analytics employee was described by the lab’s general manager as a longtime employee in his 30s.
The man was treated at the scene by paramedics before he was driven to hospital.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Chemical+flash+fire+Edmonton+injures+employee/3043971/story.html#ixzz0oNAXs7Hz

Chemical spill causes evacuation, road closure
Lockport fire officials say nobody was hurt

Lockport officials evacuated a downtown building and rerouted traffic earlier this week after 100 gallons of a flammable industrial solvent leaked from a tanker truck on Illinois Highway 171 at Ninth Street.