From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (9 articles)
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:38:18 -0400
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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, October 27, 2014 at 7:37:44 AM

A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas

Table of Contents (9 articles)

POLICE INVESTIGATION ON THE JAISALMER SHOP FIRE, SEVEN DEAD
Tags: India, public, follow-up, death, unknown_chemical

LIQUID BOMBS THROWN IN WENTZVILLE
Tags: us_MO, public, explosion, injury, bomb

REPORTED IN THE NEWS LETTER ON OCTOBER 25, 1929: HOLLYWOOD ROCKED BY LABORATORY BLAZE
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, follow-up, death

JEWISH STORE OWNER IN BROOKLYN HELPS SAVE MAN ON FIRE AFTER BLAST FROM HOOKAH PIPE CHEMICALS
Tags: us_NY, public, explosion, response, acetone, flammables

ROADMAP FOR CHEMICAL RELEASE PREVENTION MAY HAVE SOME SHARP CURVES
Tags: us_WV, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical

SCHENECTADY'S SI GROUP FINED 400K BY DEC FOR POLLUTION
Tags: us_NY, industrial, release, response, other_chemical

TRUCK HOLDING SIX CHEMICAL BARRELS CATCHES FIRE
Tags: Canada, transportation, fire, response, other_chemical

FIREWORKS EXPLOSION ROCKED CONNEAUT 25 YEARS AGO TODAY
Tags: us_OH, public, follow-up, death, explosives, fireworks, illegal

2ND LD WRITETHRU: EXPLOSION IN GERMANY KILLS ONE, INJURES 21
Tags: Germany, industrial, explosion, death, unknown_chemical


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POLICE INVESTIGATION ON THE JAISALMER SHOP FIRE, SEVEN DEAD
Tags: India, public, follow-up, death, unknown_chemical

JAISALMER: Police is conducting a high level investigation on the fire that broke out in a cracker shop on Wednesday late night, near Shastri circle in Balotra town of Barmer district in which seven people died by burning. Six of the dead were from the same family. With the help of forensic experts, police are trying to find out the reasons of fire and have sent the remaining evidence from the spot to the forensic laboratory, Jaipur for investigations.

Barmer SP Hemant Sharma said that crackers kept outside the Mahamaya fancy story in the busy market of Balotra caught fire and later crackers in the godown too caught fire. To save the godown, people working in the shop downed the shutter and they took shelter behind the closed shutter, but with the explosions from the crackers, all of them died, burnt alive. Only after six hours, the fire could be controlled. It is yet to be known whether the shopkeeper had any license to sell crackers or not.

The SP said that on getting information, he and the district collector reached the spot and took stock of the situation.

On the other hand, as per the information, the fire was so severe that people gathered outside the shop on Wednesday late night and efforts were made to rescue the people caught behind the shutter but it proved futile. As per the information, there was a counter outside the Mahamaya fancy story and business was at the peak even at around 1 am. A customer was checking missile gun and when a flame from the gun fell on the crackers kept at the counter and it caught fire and crackers started exploding. The owner of the shop and staff, went inside the shop and closed the shutter so that crackers kept behind the shop, in a godown, do not catch fire. In the meantime, a few rockets flew inside the shop and the fire spread. People, who closed the shutters did not come out. Police, administration, ambulance and fire tenders were immediately called. The fire tender from Balotra reached the spot, but fire could not be brought under control. On the spot, additional SP, deputy SP along wi!
th force too reached. Barmer's Cairn energy fire tender was also called. By the time fire was controlled, everything turned to ashes.

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LIQUID BOMBS THROWN IN WENTZVILLE
Tags: us_MO, public, explosion, injury, bomb

WENTZVILLE, Mo. - Wentzville Police are warning residents to be on guard.

At least six liquid bombs were thrown in various places Saturday night, including the Bear Creek Subdivision and the police department.

As of Sunday night, no arrests have been made. KSDK spoke with a man who picked up one of the bottle bombs after it was thrown in his backyard, he did not know what it was. The bottle exploded in his hand.

The man says he suffered a mild concussion after the impact of the explosion knocked him against his hot tub. He was treated at a local hospital.

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REPORTED IN THE NEWS LETTER ON OCTOBER 25, 1929: HOLLYWOOD ROCKED BY LABORATORY BLAZE
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, follow-up, death

Hollywood, the hub of the American film universe, was shaken by four terrible explosions yesterday morning when the laboratory belonging to Consolidated Film Industries Inc became the scene of one of the most disastrous fires in recent years.

Although some 50 persons were at work in the building only one is known to have been killed, and it is believed that all the others escaped.

The damage is provisionally estimated at fifty million dollars (å£10,000,000). The exact cause of the disaster is not yet known. Several million feet of film are stored in the laboratory, and it is thought that some form of combustion was responsible for the first explosion, the resultant fire from which caused the three explosions which followed.

The fire burned furiously but was prevented from spreading to nearby studios, to the saving of which the firemen concentrated their efforts. The laboratory, however, was wiped out. It is believed that 75 per cent of Hollywood‰??s film companies stored their master films in this laboratory.

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JEWISH STORE OWNER IN BROOKLYN HELPS SAVE MAN ON FIRE AFTER BLAST FROM HOOKAH PIPE CHEMICALS
Tags: us_NY, public, explosion, response, acetone, flammables

A Jewish store owner helped save a man who was seen running down a street in Brooklyn with his clothes on fire following a small explosion from chemicals used for a hookah pipe, the UK‰??s Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

The chemical fire broke out shortly before 2 p.m. on Tuesday inside a basement on McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn, across the street from a Jewish seminary. Neighbors said a 22-year-old was drying tobacco leaves using a mixture of acetone and coconut oil for a hookah pipe when fumes from the flammable liquids ignited with a water heater pilot light.

Surveillance cameras on McDonald Avenue caught the man running down the street with his clothes on fire while leaving behind a trail of white smoke, according to the Daily Mail. Witnesses said the man fled his building and raced across the street screaming for help before two people passing by were able to put out the fire.

Alex Mayer, the Jewish owner of a nearby camera shop, told 7Online. ‰??I hung up the phone and I started chasing him. And I‰??m like, ‰??Drop and roll! Drop and roll!‰?? I caught up with [him] a half block up, when he finally dropped.‰?? The victim was still burning until a truck driver named Claudio came and sprayed him with a fire extinguisher.

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ROADMAP FOR CHEMICAL RELEASE PREVENTION MAY HAVE SOME SHARP CURVES
Tags: us_WV, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical

A local environmental group is pushing for a Chemical Release Prevention Program for the Kanawha Valley.
People Concerned About Chemical Safety's executive director hopes the Freedom Industries chemical leak that tainted drinking water in nine counties this year will be the catalyst for implimenting earlier safety recommendations for the chemical industry.
Maya Nye says those recommendations from the Chemical Safety Board followed a 2008 explosion at Bayer CropScience that killed two workers and rocked a broad section of the Kanawha Valley. The CSB called for a hazardous release prevention program. CSB suggestions included a local, independent agency that would identify risks.
State and local health and environmental officials attended today's meeting in Charleston. It is seen as the first step in creating a "roadmap planning team" for accident prevention. Kanawha County was represented by fire cooridinator C. W Sigman.
Sigman made it clear the county commission would have to sign off on any regulations or laws the "team" may eventually suggest. He found problems with the model the CSB recommended.
The group assumes some action by the legislature would be needed before major changes could happen.
The chemical industry was invited to take part. It did not.

---------------------------------------------

SCHENECTADY'S SI GROUP FINED 400K BY DEC FOR POLLUTION
Tags: us_NY, industrial, release, response, other_chemical

One of the Capital Region's largest chemical plants has been hit with a $400,000 state pollution fine for a host of violations, marking the fifth such instance in less than four years.

SI Group, which makes chemical resins in its plant at Main Street in Rotterdam Junction, agreed to the fine under a settlement reached this month with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The company also agreed to hire an outside engineer to study how pollution control equipment is performing and how it can be improved. That study has to be given to DEC.

In an agreement signed by SI Vice President Daniel Tilley, the company also agreed to test its emissions stacks for levels of hazardous air pollution, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and soot. If tests show "additional controls are necessary," the company would have to provide DEC with a schedule to perform the work.

DEC officials were not available late Friday to comment on the agreement and pollution fine, which is one of the largest imposed by the regional DEC in recent years.

In four earlier DEC agreements since March 2011, SI Group paid a total of about $275,000 in fines against the Rotterdam plant for air and water pollution violations.

On Friday, company president and CEO Frank Bozich said the latest violations and fine were "completely unacceptable and inexcusable to me ... We are moving in a very positive direction to make sure that this doesn't happen again. I am confident that we are headed in the right direction."

Among the latest violations, during an August 2013 inspection by DEC, staffers were splashed with liquid from a rooftop pollution control unit that ran off the roof, down a wall, onto the ground and into a gutter leading to an "industrial sewer drain." Tests found that the liquid contained five hazardous air pollutants, according to the DEC agreement.

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TRUCK HOLDING SIX CHEMICAL BARRELS CATCHES FIRE
Tags: Canada, transportation, fire, response, other_chemical

Fire and hazmat teams were called to Saskatoon‰??s North Industrial area Saturday morning after a truck holding six chemical barrels caught fire.
Crews responded to the blaze in the 800 block of 43rd Street East just after 9:30 a.m. A vehicle containing barrels of isocyanate, a chemical used to make foam insulation, was on fire.
Firefighters were able to control the fire within seven minutes and before any product sparked or escaped the barrels.

One barrel had expanded due to the heat and crews remained on scene using a thermal camera to monitor the product. Water was used to lower the product‰??s temperature.

---------------------------------------------

FIREWORKS EXPLOSION ROCKED CONNEAUT 25 YEARS AGO TODAY
Tags: us_OH, public, follow-up, death, explosives, fireworks, illegal

CONNEAUT ‰?? Twenty-five years ago today, a series of fireworks-fed explosions devastated a Conneaut neighborhood and altered the lives of hundreds of Conneaut residents.
Today, 909 Main St., is an empty lot that fronts busy Route 20. A quarter-century ago, the parcel contained a large, white house and garage that basically vanished amid smoke and fire at 11:40 a.m.
At that moment, homeowner Donald A. ‰??Danny‰?? Rossi, 57, was inside the garage, mixing chemicals he planned to use to make illegal fireworks, specifically M-80s (equivalent to a quarter-stick of dynamite) and M-500s (up to a half-stick). Something went wrong and the blend detonated with terrible force. Flames would eventually ignite an estimated 500 pounds of finished product stored in the garage and basement of the house.
The toll was heavy: Two dead, including Rossi and next-door neighbor June Riddle, 61, of Cummins Avenue, who had just exited her car and entered her home when the first explosion occurred. More than 70 homes and buildings sustained millions of dollars in damage from concussions that broke windows a mile away and were reportedly felt in Albion, Pa.

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2ND LD WRITETHRU: EXPLOSION IN GERMANY KILLS ONE, INJURES 21
Tags: Germany, industrial, explosion, death, unknown_chemical

BERLIN, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed Thursday in a powerful explosion in the southwestern German city of Ludwigshafen, German media Focus Online reported.

Local police said the blast happened at around noon local time (1000 GMT) at a construction site located close to the factory facilities of BASF, a leading chemical company.

At least one person was killed and 21 others were injured, two of them seriously, according to the police.

The exact cause of the accident is still not clear, but early investigations showed that a gas pipe at the construction site had burst, causing a big explosion and huge flames in the area.

At least 25 apartments are now uninhabitable and local authorities are seeking shelter for those affected, according to reports.

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