Links to details available at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas<
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An investigation and evacuation were launched Sunday
night at the Marriott Denver West, following the discovery of a body at
the hotel and a suspicious odor.
A very active crime scene
developed outside the hotel. The call-out involved several fire
agencies, the police department, a hazmat mobile unit, the bomb squad
and K-9 units.
Thirty-two guests were evacuated from their rooms,
left to wonder what had prompted the emergency.
Kristy
Kon was just one of the many guests evacuated from the Marriott.
According to Kon, =93It=92s kind of creepy. Who knows what=92s going on
especially with all these ambulances?=94
It all
started around 5 p.m., when two maids found a person dead in their room,
along with noticing the strong smell of sulfur.
Firefighter Micki Trost with West Metro Fire District said,
=93The items that they saw and the smell that they encountered, is not
going to cause harm to anyone else in the building and identify what is
in that room.=94
Initial reports were given that the body found was a
possible suicide.
Authorities aren=92t saying what types of items were
found in the room, or in what quantities. They=92re also monitoring the
air to determine what the odor might be, and when it will be safe for
guests to return to their rooms.
During the evacuation, the
guests have been allowed to stay in the hotel=92s restaurant which was
deemed to be safe.
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BEIJING - AN EXPLOSION at a chemical factory in
northern China has killed four and injured 37, state media reported on
Sunday, citing local authorities.
The blast occurred on
Saturday night in the city of Jinzhong, in northern Shanxi province, at
the Yushe Chemical Co, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a
provincial government statement.
The cause of the explosion
was still under investigation, the report said, adding firefighters
worked through the night to put out the resulting fire.
The
factory produced an array of chemicals ranging from common food
additives to compounds used in making plastics and paper, according to
the company website.
Two of the injured were in serious condition, the
report said.
In China an average of 187 people were killed in
work-related accidents on each day in the first half of this year, the
government has said. -- AFP
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AMHERSTBURG, Ont. -- There is no risk to the public
after a "substantial" chemical leak at the Honeywell plant Saturday
morning, says Amherstburg fire Chief Rick Murray.
At about
6:23 a.m., Murray was notified of a hydrofluoric acid leak at the Front
Road East plant. Between 45 and 100 gallons of the highly corrosive acid
were released, forming a white gas cloud over the Honeywell property, he
said.
The plant's mitigation system kicked in immediately,
dousing the gas cloud with water and knocking it down before it drifted
off the property, Murray said. The leak was stopped by 7:10
a.m.
"Everything was done according to protocol and the
emergency response was executed well," Murray said.
As part
of the town's emergency plan, the police chief and the mayor were also
notified and the fire department's own hazmat team was on standby in
case the acid leak spread beyond Honeywell grounds.
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A traffic stop at a Garden City apartment apparently
resulted in one officer being rushed to the hospital. Police Chief
David Lyons tells us that what started out as stop for drunk driving
turned into a drug trafficing arrest and a hazmat
investigation.
He says Sgt. Shawn Meyers and some other officers
followed a man into his driveway on suspicion of drunk driving, after
observing the man driving on the wrong side of the street. Lyons
says after prescripton narcotics were found in the vehicle, the man was
placed under arrest for possession and trafficing of narcotics and
shortly after, gave consent for police to search the
apartment.
"Our best guess at this time is that meth cooking had
been going on inside," Lyons tells us. He says Sgt. Meyers discovered a
bag in a kitchen cabinet, which apparently had some kind of chemical
residue "from the cook" left inside the bag. Chief Lyons says when
Meyers opened up the bag, he "caught a face full of fumes" and was
overcome.
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A violent explosion and fire at a lithium
battery-making plant blew out a wall in a test lab just after 11:30 a.m.
on Nov. 18 and shut down business for the day.
The
explosion occurred in a self-contained, reinforced corner room at
Electrochem, located at 670 Paramount Drive.
None of
the 215 employees in the building at the time was injured. They were
evacuated as part of standard safety procedures and later sent
home.
Jennifer Bolt, director of operations for Electrochem,
said a battery exploded as it was being =93pushed to its limits=94 in an
oven before going to market.
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- The
Grand Junction Fire Department and Hazmat crews arrived at West Start
Aviation Friday morning to identify an unknown chemical leaking from a
vehicle.
It wasn't a West Star
vehicle so employees didn't know if the chemical was dangerous to them
or to the environment. In a case of safe being better than sorry, they
contacted the Grand Junction Fire Department and a Hazmat
crew.
The fire department showed
up to analyze the chemical. They determined it was a non-hazardous,
industrial rust and scale inhibitor. The source of the leak was an open
valve on a tank. Fire crews secured the valve and successfully stopped
the leak.
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HEIDENHEIMER - A Central Texas community just
southeast of Temple is safe again after an Anhydrous Ammonia spill sent
two people to the hospital Thursday night.
It
happened at the Blackland Grain and Storage at 5580 Avenue F in
Heidenheimer, just southeast of Temple, around 8:20
p.m.
Hazardous fumes sent two men to the
hospital.
One of them is in critical condition.
Two other
people drove themselves to the hospital to get checked
out.
Some of them had to be hosed down to get the chemical
off of them.
Firefighters say a valve on an ammonia tank was not
sealed off all the way likely causing the leak.
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HESPERIA, Calif. -- Buckets of toxic mercury have been
found in a Southern California desert home, forcing evacuation of the
house until hazardous material experts clear the
structure.
San Bernardino County fire spokesman Jay Hausman says
authorities, acting on a tip, showed up at the Hesperia home early
Tuesday.
Hausman tells the Victorville Daily Press that a pound
of the liquid metal was found in buckets.
He says a
man in the home was extracting mercury from computer components, but
it's unclear what he planned to do with the metal.
The man,
whose name hasn't been released, was cited for possession of a highly
toxic substance.
Hausman says the man and a teenager were ordered to
leave the home until a private hazardous materials team removes the
mercury.
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