A hydrogen sulfide leak shut down the Alon Refinery on Rosedale Highway
Tuesday and may have sickened a handful of people around the plant.<
/div>
Hydrogen sulf
ide is a flammable, noxious gas produced during oil refinement. Its characte
ristic 'rotten egg' smell sent the refinery into alert mode as firefighters,
air quality experts and environmental health workers descended to help snif
f out the leak.
Firefighters drove in as workers, clad in navy jumpsuits, sca
mpered out of the Alon Refinery.
"Where this was, was not a hazard to anywhere outsi
de the facility. Now inside the facility if you were going in there without b
reathing apparatus, which our crew was, it can be quite a hazard," said Capt
ain Brandon Smith, Kern County Fire Department.
Alarm bells sounded after chemical
monitors at the plant detected a hydrogen sulfide leak around eight in the m
orning. Ambulances were on standby as crews posted at the plant's driveway, t
urned away deliveries and trucks.
"They have their own team, so when we came into t
he situation today, they had already started the process of evacuating their
employees," added Smith.
When it comes to hydrogen sulfide, the human nose is far
more sensitive than some of the best detectors.
"The machines calculate at parts
per million whereas the smell is parts per billion. So that's why you are g
oing to get a smell without even having a reading," said Kim Rodriguez, Coun
ty Spokesperson.
This isn't the first hydrogen sulfide leak at the refinery.
Under the o
wnership of Flying J, the refinery released 3,500 pounds of the flammable ga
s in October 2006.
Since Alon took over in June of last year, the Air Quality Board
says the facility has seen a few minor infractions, one as recent as Februa
ry when a flame went out on a stack, allowing combustible gas to be released
.
The p
lant is also monitored by Environmental Health.
----------------------------------
-----------
RADIATION SCARE IN ASTORIA, QUEENS, TURNS OUT TO BE JUST ROCKSTags: us_NY, public, discovery, re
sponse, radiation
ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- A hazardous material teams investigate
d a possible radiation scare at a house in Queens.
A box with a radiation symbol w
as found inside an apartment on 45th Street in Astoria Tuesday.
Newscopter 7 flew o
ver the building while Hazmat and the bomb squad sorted through
The owner died, and dona
ted everything to charity.
While his belongings were being packed up, a suspicious box was d
iscovered.
It tested positive for trace amounts of radiation.
It turns out the box was f
ull of rocks that emit low levels of radiation.
----------------------------------
-----------
LOW-QUALITY EQUIPMENT CAUSES FIRES
Tags: follow-up
MOHALI: Over the last two wee
ks, there have been three fire incidents in Mohali district wherein factorie
s were gutted and losses worth lakhs were incurred by the owners, all due to
the fact that the fire equipment in all the three factories were found to b
e deficient in quality.
The latest incident, which occurred on Sunday, has o
nce again squarely pointed fingers at the inefficient fire safety equipment b
eing used. It also shows that most of the time, the fire brigade officials d
o not bother to check up on the equipment and they award certificates to fac
tories using deficient equipment.
Additional district fire safety officer Sha
m Lal Kambhoj said, ''It is only after factories suffering a major fire inci
dent that they wake up and start using genuine and efficient fire safety equ
ipment. We survey a number of factories in a month to inform the owners of t
he condition of their equipment. Unfortunately, they do not take us seriousl
y and neglect such an important part of work and personnel safety requiremen
ts.'' He said that most factory owners were not inclined to go in for new fi
re safety equipment as they would be required to invest a significant amount
of money to buy them. Therefore, they found it comparatively cheaper to jus
t refurbish the equipment already with them to meet any eventualities.
Recen
t Blazes
On May 14, a major fire in a privately-owned rubber factory in Pha
se I was avoided and put out in less than 15 minutes, thanks to the location
of the accident site as the factory fell directly behind the Phase-I police
station and Mohali fire brigade station. Exact damage caused by the fire co
uld not be ascertained but factory officials put the damage incurred to be c
lose to Rs 10 lakh.
On May 19, a fire broke out at a packaging unit of a pri
vate factory in Phase-VIII Industrial Area and machines worth lakhs were gut
ted and about 100 employees escaped the tragedy. Fire raged uncontrollably f
or close to an hour before fire brigade officials reached the spot and helpe
d douse the flames.
On May 22, machinery worth lakhs was gutted in a fire th
at began in a chemical factory near Derabassi. Fire tenders were called from
Derabassi, Dappar in Ambala, Mohali and Chandigarh to control the blaze tha
t raged on for more than two hours
---------------------------------------------
SUMMIT S
TUDENT SERIOUSLY BURNED IN LAB ACCIDENT
Tags: us_TX, laboratory, fire, injury, unknown_chem
ical
A S
ummit High School sophomore was seriously burned Monday in a science experim
ent accident at the school, according to the school=E2=80=99s website.
The student
who was not identified was in a chemistry lab when the accident occurred ab
out 1:40 p.m. Monday.
The boy suffered first and second degree chemical burns o
n his face and arms, the website stated.
Arlington Fire Department and emergency med
ical services responded to the school after school officials alerted authori
ties.
Th
e student was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and was discharg
ed Monday afternoon.
---------------------------------------------
KVSC :: NEWS ::
HAZMAT CREWS CLEANING UP GASOLINE SPILL
Tags: us_MN, transportation, release, injury, gasoline
When St. Cloud police arrived they found a commerci
al truck had drifted off the road and hit a bridge pier, causing the truck t
o leak gasoline onto the roadway. At the time of the accident Highway 23 was
shut down from Lincoln Avenue to Wilson Avenue. The clean up is expected th
roughout Monday causing detours in the area.
The driver, who was not identified in
the police report, apparently fell asleep while driving and received minor i
njuries in the crash.
---------------------------------------------
OIL SPILL ON MAIN LIBRAR
Y PARKING LOT DEEMED 'MINOR'
Tags: us_NJ, transportation, release, response, diesel
Two fire comp
anies and a hazardous materials truck were called in after reports of an oil
spill on the parking lot of the Parsippany-Troy Hills Library's main branch
Monday afternoon. Workers on the scene quickly assessed that the incid
ent was nothing serious.
"This was minor. It appeared to be diesel [fuel]," said Jay G
eiger, an Office of Emergency Management Hazmat deputy coordinator. "The oil
didn't come from the cars in the area, so we don't know where it came from.
"
Geige
r said the amount of oil spilled could be as much as 50 gallons, but he esti
mated that the actual amount was closer to between 5 and 10 gallons.
-------
--------------------------------------
WSYX ABC6 ON YOUR SIDE TOP STORY
Tags: us_OH, transportation, relea
se, response, flammables
HILLIARD -- The leak of five gallons of a highly flammable ch
emical from a crashed 6,000-gal. tanker is stalling one final lane of Inters
tate-270 reopening on Columbus west side, ABC6/FOX28 News' A.J. Ross reports
.
Colum
bus Division of Fire chief Mike Fowler says crews are digging along the edge
of the road where the crash and spill happened to gauge any threat posed by
alpha-methylstyrene -- a fast-burning, highly flammable chemical.
---------------
------------------------------
SPILLED ACID PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE IN MORRIS
Tags: us_IL, industrial, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
Spilled
hydrochloric acid at a chemical manufacturing plant in far west Morris spur
red a hazardous materials response this morning, officials said.
The incident happe
ned at about 9 a.m. at Thornton Industries Inc., 2000 Ashley Road
, according to a Morris police and fire department dispatcher.
The emergency r
esponse team had cleared the spill by 11:30 a.m., said Cassie Buchanan,
a spokeswoman for the company.
Topics
Emergency Planning
Emergency Incidents
The spill was confined to the facility where only one per
son was working, Buchanan said. No injuries were reported.
She said 50 gallons of t
he substance had spilled, Buchanan said.
-------------------------------------------
--
GRO
WING SUICIDE TREND MAKING ITS WAY TO WICHITA
Tags: us_KS, public,
discovery, response, suicide
WICHITA, Kansas -- Wichita police say the body
of a man found Sunday afternoon is the result of a chemical suici
de. It=E2=80=99s a growing trend across the country that=E2=80=99s mad
e its way to Wichita.
A lawn care worker found the 32-year-old Wichita man=E2=80=99
s body in car that had been parked in the parking lot of The Alley, an enter
tainment and bowling venue, in east Wichita for nearly two weeks.
Police say the m
an used a series of chemicals to create a poisonous gas in order to take his
own life.
---------------------------------------------
EVERTIQ.COM Tags: China, industrial, explosion, death, unkno
wn_chemical
Explosion and fire at Foxconn Chengdu facility
On Friday, production was suspended at a Fo
xconn factory in Chengdu City (China) following an explosion and a subsequen
t fire. 3 workers were killed and 15 sustained injuries, media reports state
.
The manufacturing facili
ty recently started iPad2 production. Events now raised concerns about possi
ble disruptions of supply chain and delivery schedules. (Foxconn manufacture
s around 30% of iPad2 in Chengdu; main production is still located in Shenzh
en.) The explosion is said to have occurred in a building that house coating
lines and is used to store some chemical materials.
-------------------------------
--------------
TANK ACCIDENT RELEASES HAZARDOUS WASTE WATER
Tags:
United, Kingdom, industrial, fire, environmental, flammables, waste<
/div>
Solvent Resou
rce Management Ltd has been fined =C2=A3150,000 after a spill released waste
solvents and water at its chemical plant in Rye, East Sussex. <
/div>
A steel tank h
olding solvent and contaminated water collapsed onto a retaining wall, relea
sing the fluids into the surrounding land.
The 340 tonnes of solvent and wa
ter was potentially hazardous and highly flammable, according to the Health a
nd Safety Executive (HSE).
The tank was found to have been damaged by internal
corrosion.
A second tank was damaged during the accident, knocking off a va
lve which also released contaminated waste water on to the site and neighbou
ring property.
The area was cordoned off by East Sussex Fire for two days du
e to the potentially hazardous nature of the incident.
