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.

AHMEDABAD: Wastes stored in an open area inside Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) campus sparked off fire on Wednesday afternoon. However, no casualty or injury was reported in the incident.

The laboratory wastes of the high security establishment under the Department of Space includes various types of chemicals including inflammable chemicals, chemical containers, boxes and other substances. As a fire suddenly broke out around 12pm, the officials of the laboratory immediately alerted the fire department.

It took the fire tenders more than an hour to douse the fire and bring the situation under control at PRL. "We had a fire fighter vehicle and two water tankers at the place. We had to empty the water from both the tankers in controlling the fire," said additional chief fire officer Rajesh Bhatt.

As the fire officials were busy tackling the situation, staffs and officials of PRL gathered into a crowd to watch the situation. "The wastes have been lying there since a long time and should have been disposed of earlier," said one of the officials who did not wish to disclose his identity.

"We are unable to ascertain the cause of the fire as of now. There was no electrical wiring around the place which eliminated the possibility of short-circuit being the cause of fire. We noticed lots of scraps, wooden furniture and containers at the place," said Bhatt.

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — A man has been charged with illegally dumping chemicals in High Point, but Guilford County officials said the suspect could have avoided arrest by dropping them off at a site for free.
Juan Antonio Cardenas faces one count of felony littering and two misdemeanor counts.
High Point Fire Marshall Mike Levins alleges Cardenas left hundreds of gallons of paint, lacquer and thinner all over the city. More charges are pending, Levins said.
Dozens of buckets were found in two places in the city–the Old Miller Desk Factory on Lincoln Road and another property on Anderson Place, Levins said.
It didn’t stop there, Levins said.
“They sold some paint. They gave some paint to other individuals, and what they couldn’t get rid of they basically just dumped on the side of the road,” Levins said.

Two Albany garbage truck workers, overcome by chemical fumes today, are out of the hospital now and recovering.

HAZMAT workers sifted through the commercial garbage on their truck after the men complained on strong fumes. Turns out a household chemical sickened the workers.

The two workers smelled an acid-like odor in the cab of the commercial garbage truck. When they started having chest pains, they knew something was wrong.

As soon as the fumes filled the truck, the two workers felt the effects.

"Complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath," said Assistant Albany Fire Chief Rubin Jordan.

Eleven months after a San Luis Obispo city employee dumped toxic chemicals at a public facility, city officials have still not reported the illegal discharge to state authorities as required by law.
The failure to report the spill could leave the city with fines totaling more than $1 million.
“I would hate to imagine the fines that could result from this mess,” Doug Dowdin, a city storm water enforcement official says in a Feb. 2 email to fellow employees. “I am sure that I don’t have to stress the potential liability.”
In late January 2011, an angry city employee told several subordinates to pour out cans of acetones (solvents), varnish, epoxy, creosote, enamel paint and latex paint. The chemicals were dumped on an asphalt parking lot that abuts up to a grassy area. Paint and chemicals swirled together creating areas thick with paint and a lower section that included open soil coated with acetones, varnishes and creosotes.

CANBY – Students were temporarily evacuated at Canby High School after the remains of a science experiment burst into flames in a chemistry lab garbage can.

Canby Fire District responded to the call around 11:40 a.m. Friday. A teacher extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived. No one was injured.

"We got lucky," Canby Fire District Division Chief Troy Buzalsky said after the incident, which occurred in a room filled with chemicals.

Two students were walking down the hallway when they spotted flames coming from the classroom and notified faculty, Buzalsky said.

A teacher entered the chemistry lab – empty after a class 10 minutes earlier – and saw fire shooting three feet high from a metal garbage can. Inside was remnants from a chemistry experiment involving a copper penny, zinc and sodium hydroxide.

The teacher put out the fire with an extinguisher while other faculty members called police and evacuated students. About 1,200 of the school's 1,700 students were evacuated, Buzalsky said.

The wing in which the fire occurred reopened about an hour later, though the chemistry lab will remain closed for the day.

"At this time, it is believed that there was a chemical reaction that took place after the experiment in the garbage can where the discarded experiment debris was left," Buzalsky said.

Robots would be used to check the site of repeated explosions at a former military ammunition warehouse at Lovnidol near Sevlievo in northern Bulgaria, where the latest in a series of blasts was reported on the morning of November 14 2011.
 
Explosions at the ammo dump site began on November 12, and for some time there were reports of explosions every 15 minutes. The site was cordoned off but authorities said that there was no danger to the public of chemical or radioactive contamination.
 
The company that has owned the premises since 2008, Emco, was expected to deploy a robot to inspect the site, Bulgarian National Television said.

Monson Companies' South Portland facility has been fined $151,900 for storing hazardous chemicals in a way that could have led to the creation of toxic gases, a fire or an explosion, EPA officials say.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined a South Portland company that manufactures and distributes chemicals $151,900 for improper storage of hazardous materials.

Monson Companies Inc., of Leominster, Mass., operates a warehouse, distribution, repackaging and custom blending chemical manufacturing facility in South Portland, according to the EPA.

Officials say Monson stored numerous chemicals "inappropriately." The agency says incompatible chemicals were stored so close together that a spill or release of one could have set off a chemical reaction that might have created toxic gases, a fire or explosion.

The company also failed to identify hazardous wastes, maintain a proper emergency plan and submit a hazardous materials inventory to emergency responders, the EPA says in a press release.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif- Two city of Santa Cruz workers were in their garbage truck when they say that a white cloud enveloped their truck and they could not breathe.

Santa Cruz Fire was dispatched to the scene around 6:30 AM. Firefighters isolated the area around the truck. Santa Cruz Police closed streets to traffic and pedestrians in the area of Sumner and Darwin.

Firefighters used PH paper to determine that the white substance was an acid. The acid was neutralized with Sodium Bicarbonate and the truck was driven to the city's landfill to dispose of the contents.

LOWER TOWNSHIP — Emergency crews responded Wednesday to the township’s public works yard after a trash crew picked up a mix of solvents and acids that started smoking in the back of the truck.
Crews were called out at 8:18 a.m., police said.
A township garbage truck picked up materials from in front of a house undergoing renovations in the Tranquility neighborhood, Cape May County Health Officer Kevin Thomas said.
The chemicals reacted with each other in the truck, so the truck dumped them in the township public works yard, Thomas said. He said the material will be rebagged and taken to the county landfill, along with the sand used to stop the chemical reaction.

A WAGGA hazmat team was left stumped yesterday about the source of noxious fumes which left four employees of Kurrajong Waratah Recyclers in hospital.
Initially believed to be a chemical spill, the incident brought police, a hazmat team, firefighters and paramedics to the facility around 1pm, after the employees were overcome by fumes.

The building was evacuated while the fire brigade and paramedics were called.

Fire and rescue duty commander for the Wagga area Duncan White said an unknown chemical had escaped from a steel can while it was being crushed and baled.

"It became apparent a can had erupted with some sort of chemical escaping which left five workers overcome. Four were taken to hospital, with one who refused transport," he said.

COVENTRY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A suspicious and potentially deadly substance, removed from a house on the 2600 block of South Main Street in Coventry Township Tuesday, is headed to a special laboratory for testing.

"We want to make sure we play this safe and package the substance correctly, and take it back to Maryland and have it analyzed properly in a laboratory," said FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson.

Authorities were first alerted on Monday.

Ownership of the property had recently changed, and the new owner discovered a canister with the material inside. Local authorities were notified, and the substance was recognized as potentially lethal. Local authorities were notified. They recognized the substance as a potentially lethal material and immediately contacted the FBI.

FOUR PEOPLE WERE TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL TODAY AFTER A CHLORINE GAS LEAK AT A WESTSIDE RECYCLING BUSINESS.

Four people were taken to the hospital today after a chlorine gas leak at a Westside recycling business.  it happened just before noon today at Southern Metals Recycling on Tremont Avenue.

According to Savannah Fire, employees began to dismantle a 200 pound cylinder for recycling -- they didn't know at the time it contained Chlorine, which began leaking.

A full hazmat response was issued to contain the leak and OSHA was called in to investigate.

Officials say the four employees that were exposed suffered various degrees of respiratory distress.

WASHINGTON - A Washington hotel has been evacuated, and a hazardous materials team is on the scene to investigate a possible chemical reaction that sent fumes through the building.

D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer says the Washington Marriott Hotel was evacuated about 4 p.m. Thursday in the city's Foggy Bottom neighborhood. Several streets also are closed in the area, which could disrupt rush hour traffic.

Piringer says one person was evaluated by medics.

Firefighters believe the chemical reaction started in the hotel's trash compactor.

The Nutley HazMat team responded Thursday to a contaminant spill on the Third River, authorities reported.


DEBORAH ANN TRIPOLDI/NUTLEY SUN
Nutley firefighters help Hazmat member William VonRoth address a spill Thursday on the Third River at the corner of Ravine Avenue and Harrison Street.
The contamination was possibly caused by oil or diesel fuel, according to Nutley Police Det. Anthony Montanari. HazMat was using boons to soak up the material and keep it from traveling down stream. The unit continued to address the problem at 4 p.m. Thursday in the area of Harrison Street and Ravine Avenue.

"We're currently trying to find the source of the spill," Deputy Fire Chief Paul Cafone said at 5 p.m.

Members of the Solano County Interagency Hazmat Team removed samples from eight barrels discovered in the alley to the rear of 765 Sereno Drive Wednesday afternoon.
The barrels were reported at 1:14 p.m., prompting response by 23 hazmat team members, where they found illegally dumped 55-gallon drums containing hazardous materials, according to Vallejo Fire Department spokesman Bill Tweedy.

The property owner will pay for the drums' removal.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - State transportation workers dealt with a hazmat situation in Birmingham on Thursday.

Officials say a company called Industrial Chemicals lost some of their barrels on Interstate 20. Those barrels were empty but on their way to be cleaned in Atlanta.

They were dropped all over the interstate from the Oporto Madrid exit to the Talladega area.

NORTH HIGHLANDS, CA - A Sacramento County Sheriff's Department hazmat crew safely detonated a flammable chemical at a North Highland landfill after a teenager tried to dispose of it Thursday afternoon.

The teen, a 16-year-old girl, brought a container of picric acid to the Sacramento County North Area Transfer Station on Roseville Road that had belonged to her late father, a chemist, according to sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

The picric acid was marked as flammable or explosive and that prompted landfill operators to call the Sacramento Metro Fire District. The sheriff's department was also contacted.

HASTINGS, Fla. -- Drums of chemicals were likely the cause of a foul odor in the Flagler Estates neighborhood, police said.

The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office responded this evening to a bad smell coming from the back yard of a home in the Flagler Estates neighborhood in Hastings, according to SJCSO Sgt. Chuck Mulligan.

The home had been foreclosed on and officials found drums of what they said are chemicals left behind by the former owners.

It does not seem to be a drug situation or a meth lab, Mulligan said.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The state of Minnesota sued 3M Co. on Thursday, alleging its disposal of chemicals once used to make Scotchgard fabric protector and other products damaged the state's natural resources, including more than 100 miles of the Mississippi River.

The lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County, demands 3M pay for the damage, which the state says includes the loss of fish and damage to groundwater, surface water and sediment. The lawsuit doesn't specify the cost of the damage.

"3M made a mess, they contaminated the waters," Attorney General Lori Swanson said. "We want them to step up and make it right."

3M spokesman Bill Nelson said Thursday that 3M has stepped up, pledging to pay the state up to $8 million to cover some direct costs of cleanup and $5 million to fund environmental research into the chemicals. 3M also is working on remediation at its disposal sites.

The lawsuit focuses on 3M's disposal of perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, and their compounds. The Maplewood-based 3M began producing PFCs in the 1940s, and legally disposed of them in landfills until the early 1970s — when the company built a corporate incinerator to handle the waste.

Workers at a nearby tow truck lot thought they saw oil leaking from BRT Extrusions on Main Street in Niles.

But the black, dirt-like substance was actually industrial waste, dumped there from the plant.

"Basically what it is, is the grit from a parking lot and some of the remnants of what was left in the mill. They wanted to unclog their drains, and that's basically what they were doing," said Trumbull County HAZMAT Chief Don Waldron.

"It's a dirty black water with gravel and sludge from the storm sewer line," said Niles fire Lt. Rodney Freel.

BRT Extrusions hired an outside company to clean their drains, and that subcontractor said they didn't know they had to contain the waste. Waldron said it's technically considered open dumping, but the workers were only given a warning, and the material isn't in danger of spreading or causing any harm.

Thieves have stolen the wreckage of a hazardous waste management plant which was gutted in a chemical fire.

Police said the metal-framed building structure had been taken from the site of BCB Environmental Management in Tockwith, North Yorkshire.

The plant was destroyed in a large fire in August and the company later went into liquidation.

The Environment Agency has been alerted amid concerns the stolen building debris could be contaminated.

North Yorkshire Police were alerted to the theft when the Environment Agency started clearing up the site on Wednesday.

Hazmat crews were investigating a sticky, white substance dumped into a Santa Rosa storm drain Thursday.

A Proctor Terrace youth admitted he dumped the results from his attempt to make moonshine into the drain on Geary Drive at El Camino Way, Santa Rosa police officials said.

The youth could possibly be fined for the dumping, Officer Alan Schellerup said.

“He said he dumped five gallons of milk that had soured and gelled,” Schellerup said.

County narcotics detectives are conducting an investigation after discovering a drug disposal site near the Fremont Campground Area in Los Padres National Forest last week.
Construction workers reported the methamphetamine by-product dumpsite to authorities last Thursday. A member of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department’s Hazmat division arrived at the location and transported the waste to a disposal facility.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Drew Sugars, detectives suspect the site was also the location of an illegal drug lab.

WEST POTTSGROVE — Crews from 97 agencies, including dozens of fire companies from three counties, were held at bay for hours Monday by flames and massive plumes of smoke after fire broke out at a plastics recycling facility on the Universal Concrete campus.

It took crews until around 1 p.m. — more than five hours after the fire was reported — to get the blaze under control.

West End Fire Company Assistant Chief Andy Mitz, who was the incident commander, explained that crews were attempting to attack the building fire at 400 Old Reading Pike from the exterior before they took the chance of entering the facility.

ADAMS COUNTY - All evacuations were lifted in connection to a Commerce City hazmat situation on Friday night that forced people to leave more than 200 homes after investigators determined that an unknown substance leaking from several barrels was not a threat.

The Adams County Sheriff's Office says several barrels were found off of 80th Avenue near Monaco Street. They were found around 4:30 p.m. near an abandoned chemical plant.

Just before 9 p.m., investigators determined the substance leaking from the barrels was a petroleum-based product and was not threatening to those in the area.

Area residents had called the fire department earlier to complain about the bad smell.

Fire officials are investigating a chemical fire at an industrial waste recycling business in North Dumfries Township.

Crews responded to a blaze at Panda Environmental on Earl Thompson Place shortly after 11-am.

The fire was burning itself out before the North Dumfries Township fire department arrived on scene, and they extinguished the remaining fire.

As a precaution, a neighbouring business was evacuated and St. Brigid school in Ayr was advised to keep kids indoors.

The Ministry of the Environment was also notified, although there's no evidence of a spill.

Tulsa Fire Department Hazmat crews cleaned up what they believe was a meth lab Wednesday evening, officials said.
Istvan Balogh, a Hazmat Team member, said they were called to a vacant house in the 400 block of South Wheeling Avenue to clean up materials associated with making methamphetamine and the “remnants of a past lab that was working.”

Balogh said the small lab wasn’t operational at the time but that they did find materials to produce the drug. He said the lab might have been used today.

Preparations are underway to send the first of four shipments of hazardous chemical waste from Sydney to Denmark this month.
A deal between Australia and the Danish government means the 3,000-tonne shipment of waste will be disposed of at an incineration site in the south of Denmark.
In total, 16,000 tonnes of high-risk waste, or hexachlorobenzene, will be shipped from the Orica site at Botany in Sydney.
The waste was created by the production of plastics and solvents.
It is the chemical material dug up from the old Orica site and the contaminated packaging and protective gear that must be destroyed safely.

The Environment Protection Authority is investigating a toxic chemical spill in South Australia's mid-north yesterday.

Police say a farmer saw a man in a white ute emptying a drum on the side of the track near his farm yesterday.

Country Fire Service workers have cleared the area successfully.

The chemical is still unknown and samples will be analysed next week.

DAYTON —Sharp-eyed road workers, a quick response and Tuesday afternoon’s downpour combined to avert what could have been a major hazardous material spill on North Main Street.
“We were very fortunate,” Dayton Fire Chief Herbert Redden said of the spill of about 150 gallons of waste silver cyanide on Main, between Hudson Avenue and Shadyside Drive, about 10 a.m.
A local waste recovery service was hauling the weak solution from a chemical company to a disposal site when workers for a contractor resurfacing Main spotted the truck’s leaking tank.
Seeing the truck’s hazardous material placard, the workers chased down and stopped the vehicle, Redden said. The driver and another employee came in contact with the solution and were treated for skin irritation at a hospital. Two other people were taken to hospitals for decontamination.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A chemical accident at a north side business has sent two workers to the hospital.

Around lunchtime, a lab worker at a business on Hollister at Hillmont in northwest Houston discarded some chemicals in a bucket, causing a reaction. The mixture created sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Houston Fire Department and HazMat units were called to the scene.
No evacuations were called for and there's no threat to the community. Two workers were taken to an area hospital to be checked out as a precaution.

MIDDLETOWN — The clear substance found near the Wilcox apartment complex last week has been identified as hydroflouric acid, a highly corrosive liquid and contact poison, officials said Wednesday.

Shortly before noon on Oct. 14, officials received a 911 call after three members of the complex’s maintenance staff found a 10-gallon bucket filled with clear liquid while cleaning the banks of a nearby brook.

Eyewitness reports revealed that some of the liquid spilled into the brook, which leads to a pond, and created a vapor-like cloud which could be seen for several hours thereafter. The substance reacted with the moisture in the air to create the cloud, said state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Cyndy Chanaca.

The reason why the container was there remains unknown. However, it appeared to be an “old historic drum” dumped there years ago, Chanaca said. It has since been sent by the DEP to an approved disposal facility for discarding.

EDINA, Minn. - Edina High School and Valley View Middle School were evacuated and closed Friday morning after a small chemical leak in a storage room at the high school.

Edina police and firefighters were called to the school at 6754 Valley View Road to assess the scene after a custodian came across the leak around 8 a.m. The custodian was treated for his exposure at the scene as a hazmat crew went to work cleaning up the chemicals.

Superintendent Ric Dressen said the schools would remain closed for the day.

The leak originated from a chemical neutralization tank used to hold and neutralize discarded chemicals from the school’s science labs. The tank had backed up and began leaking onto the high school floor. Test results showed that the chemical mixture had already been neutralized, and did not pose an immediate health threat.

The spill was cleaned up by noon, but the incident throws a small curveball in this weekend's homecoming plans at Edina High School. Friday night’s football game will go on as scheduled, but Saturday’s dance will be moved to a community center.

Illegal dumping across from Hauppauge Landfill stirred concerns of Suffolk County Police.

Suffolk County Police received a call that multiple drums filled with an unknown substance were found in the woods off Millmay Avenue, across from Hauppauge Landfill at approximately 11 a.m today.

Police said multiple small drums of oil were found abandoned in the woods. An officer estimated less than a gallon had spilled, contaminating soil in the area.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) — Three workers were checked out at a hospital and an apartment complex evacuated after a cloud of gas escaped a discarded chemical drum.

Cyndy Chanaca (Chah-NAH'-kah), a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, says the incident began when three handymen hired to clean up debris at the apartment complex were trying to retrieve a plastic container on Thursday.

Robert Kronenberger, Middletown's deputy fire chief, says the gas was emitted from a 30-gallon drum the workers found in a brook. A contractor hired by the state is trying to retrieve it.

Kronenberger says the three workers were decontaminated by the fire department and were briefly hospitalized.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- A Middletown apartment complex was evacuated and three maintenance workers sent to the hospital after a container filled with an acidic chemical was found Thursday afternoon.
Officials said three maintenance workers found the container on the banks of Sumner Brook in the area of South Main Street while cleaning up trash at about 11:30 a.m.
Officials said when the workers tried to move the container, a clear liquid spilled out creating a vapor cloud.
"All of a sudden, there's pounding at the door," said resident Alyssa Broe. "She's telling me she's scared and there's firefighters suited up in masks on asking us to evacuate the building."
A nearby apartment building, which contains 82 units was evacuated after the discovery, officials said.

THE BURSCOUGH chemical waste plant explosion was an accident waiting to happen, residents claimed last night.
Ken Davies, a member of Burscough Residents Against Transfer Station (BRATS) told the Advertiser that people are now asking why PHS Waste Management, was allowed to be sited so close to their homes in the first place after the explosion on Tuesday.
Ken said the group warned the council years ago that this sort of dangerous incident, at the plant formerly Reformation Disposal Services Ltd, was inevitable.
He said: “This catastrophe is big enough to set alarms bells ringing. These plants should be sited where there are no risks to residential areas.”

The driver of an Albuquerque recycling truck was surprised when he picked up a dumpster full of recycling and found it contained discarded meth lab equipment.

The driver then hauled it from the Smith’s supermarket at Paseo and Golf Course Road NW to the West Side police substation, where cops immediately declared it a hazmat situation and reacted accordingly.

Investigators will now try to see if Smith’s security cameras recorded evidence of who dumped the materials.

WEST HARRISON — Two town sanitation workers were overcome by acidic fumes from a garbage truck and rushed to the hospital Tuesday morning.

A routine residential garbage run down Locust Avenue turned dangerous around 8:45 a.m.

While a Harrison sanitation crew was collecting trash, their garbage truck began spewing smoke.

A Westchester County Hazardous Materials Response Team determined that the smoke was caused by acid thrown out with trash, said Caren Halbfinger, spokeswoman for the county Health Department.

Police are investigating what acid it was and what house it came from.

VALLEJO, Calif. -- Firefighters responded to a hazardous materials incident in Vallejo early Friday morning in which an unknown acid was left in a trash can in a residential area, a fire captain said.
The incident started around 7:50 a.m. when a garbage man dumped the contents of a 33-gallon plastic trash can into his truck and visible fumes began to emanate from the container, Vallejo fire Capt. Marcus Banks said.
"He said his throat started hurting," Banks said.
The man was examined by paramedics at the scene and was able to return to work.
"For the most part he was OK," Banks said.
The trash can was picked up at 175 Rutgers Court, a vacant, single-family home that was being prepared for renters, Banks said.
The clear acid was in a 1-gallon plastic container that had leaked into the trash can, Banks said.
The container was not labeled and the acid has yet to be identified, Banks said.

BOSTON -- Hazardous materials crews were cleaning up and investigating a case of illegal dumping in Somerville on Friday.
The Massachusetts Water Resource Authority said about 200 gallons of a tar-like substance was illegally dumped a parking lot of a MWRA building on Mystic Avenue, under Interstate 93. About 10 gallons leaked into a storm drain, the MWRA said.
“It almost smells like somebody may have taken stuff from a septic system and just dumped it here,” Somerville Fire Chief Kevin Kelleher told Wicked Local Somerville.
The substance did not leak from the MWRA building, officials said. The dumping happened overnight, according to the MWRA.

An open reservoir used to store toxic aluminium refining tailings breached Oct. 4 near Ajka, Hungary, flooding the country with an estimated 700,000 cubic meters of highly alkaline sludge that has killed at least four people, and seriously harmed hundreds of residents and the environment.  The Hungarian government has declared a state of emergency as toxic mud travels rapidly in tributaries towards the Danube River, facilitated by heavy rains and flooding.

The Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt refinery, where the catastrophe occurred, is owned by MAL Magyar Aluminium, which sells  aluminium for use in zeolites, glasses, ceramics, and other products used in the chemical industry, according to the company's website.

EATON - HazMat crews were called to an antique shop in eastern Colorado Tuesday after a container with explosive material inside was found.

The Eaton Fire Department says they were called to Alley Arts and Collectables in the 100 block of Oak Avenue after the material was found. The Eaton Police Department and Weld County Bomb Squad also responded to the scene.

No details have been released on what kind of material was found, but firefighters believe it is something left over from when a drug store used to own the building.

Firefighters say an occupant of the building found the explosive material and the building was cornered off for safety while HazMat investigated.

A Hazmat team is cleaning up a chemical spill in South Reno after a Waste Management employee was burned this morning while collecting trash.

At around 8:09 a.m., the employee emptied several trash cans into a garbage truck in the 10000 block of Crystal Bay Drive and began to compact it when he heard a pop, followed by a chemical spray that burned his skin, City of Reno spokesperson Michele Anderson said. The employee was transported to an area hospital to be treated. The severity of his injuries was unknown, but Anderson said he is 'doing okay.'

The Washoe County Health Department is also at the scene, and will continue the investigation to determine what kind of chemical it was and where it came from, Anderson said. Investigators have narrowed the chemical's source to about 4 homes on the street, she said.

Investigators determined only that the chemical was an acidic liquid, and they were using a stabilizing agent to neutralize it. Hazmat crews were also working on moving the garbage truck from the scene, Anderson said.

CHATHAM – The disposal area of the town transfer station is open for business today after a caustic substance sickened transfer station employees yesterday afternoon and a Hazardous Materials Team was called to the scene, reports the Cape Cod Times.

Transfer station workers called the fire department and reported that a substance had irritated their eyes, noses and throats, according to a Chatham Fire Department official.

No one was seriously hurt, but one employee was transported to Cape Cod Hospital for evaluation, he said.

The Hazmat team worked late into the night to clean up the transfer station, according to the official. Several substances were found, including commercial-grade muriatic acid and pool-cleaning chemicals like chlorine, said the official.

An Army bomb disposal unit today carried out a controlled explosion on an unstable chemical at a laboratory in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin.

Authorities at the college on St Stephen's Green contacted the emergency services shortly before 12.30pm after an internal audit of the lab found the chemical had degraded to a dangerous state.

Following an examination of the chemical by the bomb disposal team, the chemical was deemed unsafe to transport and was subsequently made safe through a controlled explosion on nearby waste ground.

The offending material is understood to have been 30g of picric acid, a potentially explosive substance which is commonly used by laboratories in the analysis of metals and ores.

When the substance goes beyond a certain timeframe, it can become dangerous to transport.

Emergency crews responded to a hazardous material incident at the Western Placer Waste Management Authority Regional Sanitary Landfill and Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Roseville this afternoon.

The incident began about 12:30 when two employees of the facility came into contact with an unknown substance while working on a conveyor belt in the recycling area of the MRF. The employees experienced skin irritation and watering eyes and were transported by ambulance to the Sutter Regional Medical Facility in Roseville for precautionary reasons.

Nortech, the company that operates the facility for the Waste Management Authority, evacuated the building. Emergency crews responded and the building was opened up and ventilated, or dry decontaminated. Crews conducted air testing in the building and nothing unusual was detected. Additionally, testing of the building detected nothing unusual in the waste in the building.

DONNA - State environmental inspectors want the property owner of an old manufacturing planet to come up with a plan to clean up a recent chemical spill.

Two weeks ago a fire broke out at the site on 11th Street, south of Business 83 in Donna. A chemical called nahptha was stored in barrels at the plant. The chemical is used in dry cleaning.

A demolition crew started tearing down one of the silos on site. There was about 10 inches of sludge and chemical left inside the silo and it sparked the fire.
The city of Donna issued a permit when tearing down the plant. Officials say the workers did not follow protocol including cutting down tall grass. The site is located just feet from a school.

TCEQ spokesperson Jaime Garza says the owner received a certified letter from inspectors. The owner must submit a plan to cleanup the site to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. If the owner does not comply he could face fines or other penalties.

At 11:10 this morning, Lafayette Fire Department responded to Lafayette High School for a reported fire in the hallway. Upon arrival, the fire was out, but smoke was still in the hallway near science rooms. Members of the school staff and school resource officer extinguished the fire. Firefighters cleared out the smoke and rendered the area safe. Fire caused minor damages in the hallway.

The school was evacuated when the fire alarms were activated.  

Fire investigators determined that the fire originated in a trash container located in the hallway. The custodian emptied the trash from the science labs/classrooms into a larger trash container. The science department utilized zinc and sodium hydroxide and other items. The remains were discarded. The fire was caused by a chemical reaction with the materials in the trash container.  

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California judge has ordered Target Corp. to stop improperly disposing of damaged or defective items that qualify as hazardous waste.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Steven Brick signed the order Friday based on allegations brought by the state and several cities and counties.
Their lawsuit contends that Target stores statewide have routinely thrown hazardous items such as bleach, pesticides, paint, aerosols and electronics directly into the trash.
Among the claims, the Los Angeles city attorney's office says Los Angeles stores sent more than 5,000 pounds of unsalable hazardous products to a regional food bank.
Minneapolis-based Target says in a statement that the company has a comprehensive program in place to ensure stores comply with California law.

Demolition workers accidentally started a fire at an old chemical manufacturing plant Friday morning.

The facility, on the 700 block of South 11th Street in Donna, is used to manufacture napthalene, a chemical used for dry cleaning solutions, Mid-Valley emergency coordinator George Garrett said. The workers, contracted by the City of Donna, were demolishing the building when the chemicals inside caught fire.

“Fortunately there was no explosion,” he said. “It was a highly voliatile chemical. The Donna Fire Department was able to put it out very quickly using foam.”

If a coke bottle has something other than soda in it, and a lithium battery strip has been added, don’t touch it, San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s officials warned Friday.
A maintenance man for the Rancho Del Arroyo mobile home park in Oceano learned this the hard way Friday morning when he picked up three bottles that had some liquid residue inside, sheriff’s officials said.
He tossed them into his ATV and drove off at about 11:30 a.m., but within seconds one of the bottles exploded and sprayed the man with liquid, burning his clothes and possibly his skin, said sheriff’s representative Rob Bryn.
The mobile home park is in the 2700 block of Cienaga Street.
The maintenance man, who was not identified, assumed a bomb had gone off, Bryn said.
He was able to get out of the vehicle before a second bottle exploded, but complained of pain after being decontaminated and checked by emergency personnel, Bryn added.
Investigators believe the juice and soda bottles were discarded from a methamphetamine lab.

LAUDERDALE-BY-THE-SEA (CBS4) ― This 55-gallon drum washed ashore on the beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea on Monday,
The drum was discovered shortly after 9:00 a.m. at 4250 El Mar Drive.

Unaware of whether anything inside the 55-gallon drum was dangerous, the HazMat team was called to investigate and determined no radioactive or dangerous substances were inside.

The drum had been compromised and contained sea water. The beach was closed for 500 yards in both directions.

Nine employees were evacuated from a Surrey waste transfer facility after experiencing headaches, difficulty breathing and burning in the throat Monday.

Lorne West, Surrey fire battalion chief, said the fire department and their hazardous materials specialists had an entry team do an assessment of the facility with chemical and gas detectors but were unable to locate the source of the irritant.

"We didn't work our way through all the trash so the concern is that once the trash starts to move through again it will recur."

West said Wastech's Surrey site will be closed while a more specialized hazardous materials team evaluates the facility.

The employees were evaluated and treated on site. Their symptoms cleared after a short time and no workers were hospitalized.

ALIQUIPPA, Pa. -- Hazardous-materials crews and firefighters are mopping up at the scene of a scrap yard fire that remains under investigation in Aliquippa.
Aliquippa police said flames were shooting 30 to 40 feet in the air after the fire at Aliquippa Recycling was reported at about 2 a.m. Monday along Woodlawn Road.
Firefighters said the scrap yard was filled with old cars, causing concern that gasoline could still be in some of the tanks.

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco fire officials say one person was taken to the hospital after a chemical was accidentally released into the air at a recycling facility at Pier 96.
Lt. Mindy Talmadge says a box containing ammonium phosphate—a white powder found in fertilizer—broke while going down a conveyer belt at West Coast Recycling around 6:30 a.m. Friday.
One person was taken to the hospital complaining of eye irritation.
Talmadge says about a dozen other people had their eyes flushed at the scene, and the building was evacuated.
Talmadge says the area is being cleaned up and workers should be able to return to the facility later in the day.

FAIRHOPE, Alabama -- Police and firefighters evacuated Fairhope’s Public Works compound and closed a portion of Section Street for about two hours this morning after city workers reported a strong "chemical smell" at the city’s household garbage warehouse, said Sgt. Craig Sawyer, police spokesman.

At about 9:30 a.m., workers at the warehouse smelled noxious fumes while they were using bulldozers to push household waste into the trailer of an 18-wheeler, said Dan McCrory, Fairhope Volunteer Fire Department spokesman.

The workers left the facility, and at 9:37 a.m. Fairhope firefighters were called to the scene. Assistant Fire Chief Chris Ellis immediately ordered an evacuation of the Public Works area, which includes several buildings and warehouses, as well as the nearby animal shelter, The Haven.



The team determined that, as machines pushed the waste toward the truck trailer, a number of chemicals had been accidentally combined in a single 3-by-5-foot area, McCrory said.

The combination apparently created a chemical reaction, he said. The team’s instruments detected at least four chemicals:
Muratic acid, which in high concentrations can be used to etch concrete
Calcium chloride, a highly water-absorbent salt made of calcium and chlorine
Chlorine dioxide, used as household bleach, and
Calcium hydroxide, known colloquially as "lime," which has a variety of uses including the creation of mortar and plaster and the treatment of sewage.

Three people were hospitalized after they were exposed to a potentially dangerous gas Wednesday morning at a scrap yard on Amarillo Boulevard.
Amarillo Fire Department Chief Steve Ross saidm that at about 11:15 a.m., workers at W. Silver Recycling Inc., 3320 E. Amarillo Blvd., ruptured a tank, releasing a gas that "caused some people some discomfort."

Investigators said an employee was operating a machine that cuts scrap metal into smaller pieces. The worker cut into a cylinder and a vapor cloud was released, investigators said. The cloud spread across the metal-strewn work yard.

Three workers in the yard suffered difficulty breathing and were treated at the scene, Ross said. The vapor had dissipated when emergency crews arrived.

"It released and is gone," Ross said shortly before noon.

The unidentified workers were hosed down by firefighters and transported to a hospital for observation.

Ross said victims told firefighters they believed anhydrous ammonia was released.

Firefighters are tackling an explosion at BCB Environmental Waste Services on Marston Moor Business Park in Tockwith.

Police are advising motorists to keep their windows up as they drive between J46 at Wetherby and J47 on the A1.

Traffic is believed to be 'coping well'. There are also reports of smoke blowing across the road on A64 between the A659 and Colton Lane.

According to the York Press, villagers have been evacuated and nearby residents have been told to keep their windows closed.

It's believed a plume of black smoke is headed towards York.

The tide brought in something dangerous at Kailua Beach Wednesday morning.

A blue, 55-gallon plastic barrel washed ashore around 9:30 a.m .

A hazmat team did some field testing and found the substance inside the drum was dangerous to humans.

Fire officials say it does not appear that the liquid leaked into the water.


“It doesn't appear to be a flammable or anything like that, just if it were to get on your skin it would cause anything from an irritation to an actual burn on your skin. It has a fairly high PH, you certainly wouldn't want to get an exposure to this liquid,” said Fire Capt. Carter Davis, Hazmat 1.

Fire officials say it had been in the ocean for some time because it was covered with barnacles.

The coast guard took the drum to conduct some samples and identify the liquid found inside.

University of Florida police made an unusual discovery Tuesday at a campus sorority: a cancer-causing compound left in a Dumpster.


A handyman at the Alpha Delta Phi sorority initially reported finding a glass bottle with a hazardous materials warning on it. Police later discovered the bottle contained cadmium chloride.

The substance contains cadmium, which is a cancer hazard, and its dust can cause lung and kidney disease, according to its warning label.

Police also made another discovery in the garbage bag containing the bottle: several financial statements belonging to James Weidner, according to a police report.

Weidner, 81, is a retired agronomy professor. He told police he had accumulated lots of chemicals over the years and that his wife threw away the bottle for him, according to the report.

His wife, Nina, works as a sorority chef and threw away the substance thinking it was non-toxic, she said Thursday when reached by phone.

Police decided against pursuing the matter because there was no criminal intent, police spokesman Capt. Jeff Holcomb said. The matter was referred to UF's environmental health and safety department for possible action by environmental regulators, he said.

>The woman who threw it out thought it was non-toxic.

An explosion at an abandoned chemical factory in Nanjing city in eastern China killed at least six people and injured more than 300, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The blast at 10:10 a.m. local time today was sparked by a gas leak from a pipeline running through the factory, Xinhua said, citing local media that it didn’t identify. Buildings and vehicles within a 100-meter (109-yard) radius were badly damaged and at least 50 people were seriously hurt, Xinhua reported.

The explosion is the country’s third major industrial accident this month, following an acid leak from Zijin Mining Group Co.’s copper and gold mines into a river in the eastern province of Fujian and an oil spill in northeastern China that had shut beaches and a port. The walls and roof of the factory had collapsed and firefighters were trying to douse a fire, photographs on Xinhua’s website show.

The supply of gas feeding the ruptured pipeline has been cut, and the fire following the explosion is now under control, Xinhua said.

The air in the area still smells of gas, the State Administration of Work Safety said in its report, citing eye- witness accounts.

As far away as 1 kilometer from the blast site, broken glass bits were strewn along streets, according to a China National Radio reporter.

A 2-year-old girl is in serious condition after being burned by an acidic cleaning fluid, according to D.C. fire officials.

The incident occurred when the girl and her mother were removing trash from their Toyota RAV4 Wednesday morning in the 2500 block of 17th Street NW, according to D.C. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer. The girl apparently found the hazardous liquid — an acid-based cleaner used to removed corrosion from air conditioning coils -- in the backseat of the vehicle while her mother was distracted.

The mother took the girl to a nearby walk-in clinic in the 1600 block of Columbia Road, and officials there called the fire department, Piringer said.

The child suffered chemical burns to 25-30 percent of her body, including her face, chest and shoulders. She is also being treated for possible ingestion at Children’s Hospital, Piringer said.

D.C. fire officials later discovered the vehicle with fumes emitting from the open container, causing a “very dangerous” situation, Piringer said. The vehicle has been ventilated and the chemical removed.

“The teachable moment is how important it is to supervise children,” Piringer said. “If they’re close by, they tend to get anything, so the best advice is to make sure they don’t have access to these types of cleaning materials or any kind of hazardous material.”

GRANBY, Mass. (WWLP) - They've neutralized a Hazardous Materials situation at the Granby landfill.

A truck driver arriving to drop off a load at the landfill told 22News they were turned away because a blue barrel started giving off fumes and smoke.

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Environmental says a chemical spill at a former waste disposal facility in Rogers is an emergency but is not serious enough to require evacuating the area.
During a routine inspection Tuesday, ADEQ inspectors noticed a pesticide odor coming from a warehouse at Haz-Mert, which is currently closed and involved in bankruptcy proceedings, the agency said today.
Inside the warehouse, inspectors discovered leaking containers of flammable liquids and liquid oxidizers. Liquids were moving toward each other on the floor, creating the possibility of a fire or other chemical reaction.
ADEQ said it issued an emergency order directing the bankruptcy trustee in charge of the facility to hire an environmental contractor to clean up the spill. Work began at the site Wednesday.
“Right now, no evacuations are being required. The department continues to work with the Rogers Fire Department in the event that the situation changes,” the agency said in a news release.