X-RAY FILM CHEMICAL BLAMED
FOR EVACUATION | THEDAILYJOURNAL.COM | THE DAILY
JOURNAL, http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20100916/NEWS01/9160323
VINELAND
-- A chemical used in developing X-ray film caused the odor that led to
an evacuation Sept. 8 at a medical office building, according to the
city Fire Department.
The bromine-based chemical spilled in a storage closet
in the building, part of the former Newcomb Hospital campus at State
Street and Chestnut Avenue.
Fire Chief Robert Pagnini said the chemical is
injected from canisters into a water treatment system.
A supply
of the chemical was found once the building was vented enough for a
thorough search, he said.
Bromine is reddish-brown liquid that emits a brownish
vapor at room temperatures. It is a germicide, but also is useful in
treating film.
Paul Simon, a South Jersey Healthcare spokesman, said
the bromine was in use in an X-ray facility. Like chlorine, he said, it
can irritate the respiratory system or skin if someone is exposed to
it.
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KNOXVILLE
- Eastbound traffic on Interstate 40 at the Western Avenue and 17th
Street exit was back to normal this afternoon after authorities cleaned
up a chemical spill affecting the roadway.
Capt.
D.J. Corcoran, spokesman for the Knoxville Fire Department, said the
department's hazardous materials team was called to the scene about 1:45
p.m. after a trailer being pulled by a vehicle came loose from the
bumper. Corcoran said the trailer was carrying a drain
opener.
Authorities at first thought the substance was
cleaning supplies.
"But then it began eating the pavement," Corcoran
said.
The trailer did not include any chemical placards
identifying its contents and firefighters had to rely on the van=92s
driver to tell them what the product was, Corcoran
said.
The uninjured driver, from Denver, told authorities he
was transporting the liquid to sell it at a flea market in North
Carolina.
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THE AUBURN PLAINSMAN -
CORRODED CANISTER CAUSES BUILDING EVACUATION, http://www.theplainsman.com/view/full_story/9543259/article-Corroded-caniste
r-causes-building-evacuation-?instance=home_news_1st_right
The
Harrison Pharmacy School building was evacuated at about 8:45 a.m.
because of a corroded canister of hydrogen chloride gas, according to
the Auburn Fire Department.
A
canister of hydrogen chloride, a potentially deadly gas, was found to be
leaking.
=93The
regulator [on the canister] is stuck,=94 said Lee Evans, dean of the
School of Pharmacy. =93They had planned to remove this canister this
evening. When the University was notified that we had a canister that
could potentially leak, they pulled in the militia.=94
All
access points to the building were blocked off with yellow caution tape.
An AU alert went out at 9:29 a.m. via a phone call and 9:40 a.m. via
text message, warning students of a reported hazardous material release
and cautioning them to avoid the area.
=93This
is really being extremely safe,=94 Evans said. =93Essentially, from a
safety perspective, [the University] said we need to get it out of here
now.=94
Safety precautions included members of the Auburn and
Opelika HazMat team and Auburn Fire Department.
=93They=92r
e in level-A suits in there,=94 said an Auburn firefighter.
When
sealed in one of these suits, the wearer is completely isolated from the
outside atmosphere. The suits are composed of up to a dozen protective
layers, as well as a sealed hood and respirator mask.
On a
scale of one to 10, however, Evans said the event was only about a
0.5.
Lee Lamar, Auburn fire chief, said as far as they
know, the canister was found to be leaking this morning. He didn=92t
know if they were planning to move it or not.
=93This
wouldn=92t be standard protocol for moving it as long as it was in a
good state,=94 Lamar said. He said at 10 a.m. they were looking at one
to two more hours of cleanup.
William Ravis, professor in the pharmacy school, said
the canister had been =93sitting up there for years.=94 Arrangements
were apparently made last night to remove the canister.
Officials
are currently setting up a decontamination team.
The fire
department will make a formal statement on the situation later in the
day.
-----------------------
NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio - Crews had to a clean up an
overnight accident on the Ohio Turnpike involving two semi-truck
drivers.
The accident happened on the Turnpike in North
Ridgeville, near mile-marker 147
Police said a trucker
traveling west bound slammed into the back of another 18-wheeler,
causing the first truck to tip and spill steel pipes over the
road.
The second truck=97carrying diesel fuel--also crashed
and gouged three deep holes in the road and spilled part of his
240-gallon tank of fuel. The fuel leaked off the right lanes of the
Turnpike.
Hazmat crews were called to the scene to clean the
roads, and they were also using oil absorbing booms, similar to the one
used in the gulf spill, to soak the oil out of a nearby
ditch.
-----------------------
MIDDLETOWN =97 When Frank Szmaja called police Tuesday, he
said something had exploded in his hand. When authorities arrived, they
found Szmaja bleeding and a large number of containers holding various
chemical compounds in plain view.
In the process of securing
and examining the scene, one of the compounds exploded and injured two
State Police officers, authorities said.
Szmaja,
64, of 56 Twin Brooks Ave., was charged with possessing improvised
explosive devices, causing one of them to explode, failing to notify
police of the devices and storing the devices in a shed on his property,
police said.
Szmaja was in stable condition at Jersey Shore
University Medical Center in Neptune, where he is in custody of the
Monmouth County Sheriff's Office in lieu of $220,000 bail. His first
court appearance is scheduled for Monday, according to court
documents.
The two State Police officers, who have not been
identified, were treated and released at Riverview Medical Center in Red
Bank for numerous lacerations to their arms, faces, hands and
necks.
-----------------------
CARY - An explosion at a chemical company on Thursday
forced the evacuation of a building but did not cause any injuries,
according to town officials.
The
explosion occurred in a lab at Natland International, whose offices are
at 2700 Gateway Centre Blvd., which is off Aviation Parkway, just south
of Interstate 40. About 50 people were evacuated from the building,
according to the Cary Fire Department.
The
explosion occurred while an employee was mixing chemical compounds
including trimethyl fluoro sulfuric anhydride, sodium nitride and
water.
Damage appeared to be limited to ceiling tiles and lab
cabinets, fire officials said.
-----------------------
An
explosion happened in Arizona Chemical Factory in Oulu, in northern
Finland, early Wednesday. It has claimed the life of one person, another
person was seriously injured.
According to Finnish media report, the explosion
occurred around 8:30 in the Wednesday morning when welding work was
being carried out on the 150 water-filled cubic meter turpentine
container in the chemical Factory. The explosion killed one, injuring a
few, one seriously.
-----------------------
The driver of a tanker truck carrying a chemical
wrecked in a Doddridge County creek Wednesday, emergency officials
said.
It happened on state Route
23 about a mile south of Center Point.
The
driver hit a turn too fast, lost control, went through a guardrail, over
an embankment and landed in a creek, spilling its chemical into the
water, authorities said.
There is an ignition and respiratory concern, so crews
are keeping residents out of the area, but they're not
evacuating.
Route 23 will be closed for several hours while crews
clean up the area.
They have to extract the chemical from one of the
tanks to the other before removing the truck from the
creek.
-----------------------
COMMOTION
and chaos ensued on Pond Street today as patients and staff from the
Royal Free Hospital were evacuated, following a chemical incident in the
MRI unit.
A
spokesman from the London Fire Brigade said at the scene that it was a
"confirmed chemical incident". The emergency services had been called as
the hospital had been unable to identify a smell which had been present
throughout the day.
Mitchell
Daniels, 32, said "I was in the hospital and I could smell something
horrible as soon as we walked in the main entrance. The smell was dirty,
unclean and unhygienic-like a gone off dustbin. When we came out of the
hospital and tried to get back to the car everything had escalated.
There was commotion everywhere."
Alarms were sounded twice at
the Pond Street hospital over the incident at the MRI
unit.
-----------------------
A mystery
explosion rocked an Orange County business and injured a worker
Wednesday, but the factory on Colonial Drive hasn't said anything about
what happened, because the work it does is so
top-secret.
DSE Inc. is a government
contractor on East Colonial Drive
that
makes parts for military explosives. Wednesday morning, hazmat crews
responded to the company when a female employee was injured by some sort
of explosive device while working on an assembly line.
"They are a government subcontractor. You'd probably
be better talking with them about specifics and about what they actually
make," said Mark Smothers, Orange County Fire Rescue.
But company officials refused to give
details.
-----------------------
Employees of a building
owned by BellSouth in Raleigh were evacuated for a short time Wednesday
due to a hazmat situation.
Crews
were dispatched to 5010 Second Street around 12:31 p.m. According to
officials on scene, about 10 gallons of some sort of substance spilled
out of commercial batteries.
Firefighters neutralized the spill before cleanup crews
worked to clear the spill.
There was
no immediate danger to the public and no injuries were reported in the
incident.
