They Still Don't Know What It Was

BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, FIRE AND SHERIFF DEPARTMENTS were called  when the Atlantic Ocean washed a 55-gallon drum ashore at Hollywood Beach Sunday night.  Hollywood city workers pulled the drum onto the beach and took it to a city maintenance yard on the beach.  When they reported back for work on Monday morning they found the barrel hissing and smoking.

The Palm Beach Post continues:

Hazmat teams do know this: Inside the dangerous drum percolated a cocktail of chemicals "from the sodium perchlorate family — extremely flammable," Hollywood Fire Rescue division chief Mark Steele said Tuesday.

The day-long effort to remove the drum grew complicated in the afternoon when it broke apart and spewed white smoke, Hollywood fire officials said. That’s when the county teams were summoned. "When you have something like that, you can’t just throw it in the back of the pickup truck and get going," Steele said. "Our main goal was to get it out of there safely."

The surrounding road was closed more than eight hours while crews worked on the container.

Sun-Sentinel

After the experts determined what was inside, they destroyed it. "We disintegrated it. There is no more remnant," Steele said. "No more investigation."

But the mystery hasn’t gone away. Said Steele: "The truth is, we might never know where it came from."

However, samples of the contents were shipped off to an out-of-state laboratory to be analyzed.

WSVN-TV has a good video report on the handling of the drum and material:

Chief Steele adds that there is a concern whether there are more such drums out there that are floating their way to the coast.

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Two Quarter Million-Gallon Tanks Involved

A LINE OF VIOLENT THUNDERSTORMS that swept up the East Coast Tuesday night lent a lightning strike on a Dow Chemical storage tank in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  The blaze that broke out in the 250,000-gallon tank quickly spread to a second tank and brought a 3-alarm response from several Pennsylvania and New Jersey fire departments.

Courier Times

The tanks contained ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate, both of which are used in the manufacture of acrylic paints.  The fire began at 3:35 am Wednesday morning when the lightning bolt hit the Dow plant in Croydon.  During the incident, a volunteer police officer, David Wintz, 65, was directing traffic when he began feeling ill.  He then went home where he suffered a fatal heart attack.  No other information has been released on this sad outcome.

The fire departments attacked the tank fires with heavy applications of foam and finally had them cooled down enough by 5:30 where they stopped re-igniting spontaneously.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has more details HERE.

PhillyBurbs.com posted this video report filed early into the incident:

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The fire was marked under control at 7:30 am and is now effectively extinguished.

Fox News

NBC10 News filed this later video report from the scene:

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

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3 am Blast Unwitnessed

AN AMMONIA EXPLOSION EARLY TUESDAY MORNING blew the doors off of a Reddy Ice plant in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Channel 13

A police patrol driving through the Airport Industrial Park on his routine rounds where he found a strong smell of ammonia in the area.  He continued down the main road and found the doors, portions of the roof, and debris from the ice plant in the road and called the fire department.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports:

New Smyrna Beach Fire Division Chief Randy Wright said an apparent chemical leak inside the building ignited between 5:30 p.m. when the business closed and about 3:05 a.m. when a police officer on patrol in the neighborhood found blown out metal walls, a portion of a door blown away and damage to part of the roof.

"There was significant damage," Wright said. He also said the building was vacant at the time of the explosion and there were no injuries.

Channel 13

While the cause is still being investigated, New Smyrna Beach Fire Marshal Jeff Lariscy said a preliminary review seems to point to a slow ammonia leak filling part of the building before finding an ignition source.

"We are not sure how it happened," he said, although it is suspected the explosion may have been sparked by one of the numerous electric motors operating in the building almost around the clock.

Lariscy estimated the blast caused $300,000 damage to the building, including a 30-by-30-foot hole in the roof as well as forcing out roll-up and standard doors. The building's south wall also was blown out.

When the FD arrived on the scene they found that all the gas had largely dissipated from the area and an inspection of the surrounding area found no clouds or buildup of the product, other than the lingering smell.  The Haz-Mat crew's only task was to go inside the ice plant and shut off a valve.  Fortunately there were no residences in the general area that is primarily industrial.

Channel 13

There were no injuries and no fire damage other than the initial ignition flash.  No other businesses were affected.

News Channel 13 has more photos HERE.
New Smyrna Beach Fire & Rescue WEBSITE.

Hat tip:  Mark Donovan

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Early Tank Failure Leads to Fire Instead of Ka-Boom

A GASOLINE TANKER TRAVELING ON a 4-lane highway in Cotes d'Armor, France, Tuesday afternoon collided with a highway department truck that was working at the side of the divided highway.  The collision ripped open the forward compartment of the trailer and started a fire involving two of the six compartments.

Ouest-France

The crash killed both drivers of the two trucks and sent a flaming river of burning fuel along the roadside.  This brief video shows what the fire department was greeted with as they arrived:

Sixty firefighters and 45 police officers eventually ended up at the scene and the fire was successfully controlled not long after the 2 pm dispatch.

This raw video shows some of the suppression activity:

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Ouest-France has the story plus more photos HERE.

Ouest-France

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Flames 300 ft. High

A CHEMICAL PLANT IN AN INDUSTRIAL PARK IN MARL, Germany, had an explosion-like event Saturday afternoon that started a large fire.

Reuters

The blast at the Evonic chemical company took place in an area where CDT is produced, a component in many specialty plastics.  The explosion occurred around 2:15 pm and immediately released a fireball and leaving flames estimated to be 100 metres high.

The fire brigades have over 100 firefighters at the scene. (photo by Schaper)

A yet-unknown number of people have been injured, some seriously and one person was found dead by firefighters later into the operation.  Three people were initially reported missing, but two of them turned up at their homes and the third was later located.

dpa

An early estimate indicates that it might have been a boiler that blew up starting the fire, but what caused it is not known yet.  The event is still going and no further information is available yet.

Bild has the early STORY.
Munstersche Zeitung has MORE.

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Collision With Sedan

A GASOLINE TANKER IN AUSTIN, TEXAS, COLLIDED with a passenger car shortly after midnight Wednesday morning.  The crashed caused the tanker to rollover into a ditch where the tank filled with gasoline rupturerd and burned violently.  The driver was trapped in the cab where he was found after the fire was out.

American-Statesman

KVUE-TV reports:

AFD Battalion Chief Palmer Buck says …. the first firefighters to arrive found a tanker truck engulfed in flames and a small red car crushed along the passenger’s side near the intersection.

Firefighters found one man walking around. Buck says he appeared confused. The man told firefighters he was driving the red car when the two vehicles collided. He said he pulled his mother from the passenger’s seat and dragged her into a nearby ditch to keep her from the flames.

KVUE-TV

"Fire crews pulled the lady from the ditch as they were trying to work ahead of a wave of burning fuel coming from the tanker and coming down hill," said Btl. Chief Buck. "Pretty nightmarish scene, flaming fuel everywhere." Firefighters say the tanker truck was filled with gasoline which continued to fuel the fire. Firefighters were forced to let it continue to burn.

The woman was conscious but suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized.  Her son was also transported for treatment.

The Austin Statesman-American has MORE.

KVUE-TV posted this video report from the scene:

KXAN-TV has more plus additional video HERE.

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Protect Exposures & Let it Burn

A MAGNESIUM FIRE PRESENTED THE BELLEVUE, OHIO, firefighters with an unusual challenge Tuesday morning when they responded to the MagReTech factory across the road from the Bellevue Hospital.

Fox8 News

On arrival they found several truck trailers on fire with a report that at least four of them contained magnesium scraps.  WTOL-TV Ch. 11 Cleveland adds:

The cause is still under investigation but fire crews do have a theory.  "Some of the people in the plant seem to think that maybe lightning struck at the time. It's a possibility. We did have some good storms last night. We'll have the state fire marshall do his investigation and if that's what he determines then he'll call that," said Chief Brian Putnam of the Bellevue Fire Department.

Putnam expects this fire to smolder for a few more days.

WEWS-TV filed a video report from the scene:

They are also taking into account that rainwater pouring into the burning trailers was intensifying the fire.  Immediately after the fire started, several plant employees began towing trailers away from the fire zone, successfully removing 15-20 of them from imminent fire spread.

Shortly after noon today the fire was marked contained and under control.

WKYC-TV has posted some raw video from the fire scene:

The Freemont News-Messenger has more details HERE.

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Expected to Continue Burning For Several Hours

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7News

A SIX-ALARM FIRE JUST NORTH OF Adelaide, South Australia, is knocked down but still burning at a waste oil depot where more than 100 firefighters are working.  The blaze was prolonged by a poor water supply in the area and a tanker shuttle had to be established.  A special-call also brought a wildfire helicopter to assist.

ABC News

Adelaide Now writes in an early report:

At the height of the blaze, flames swallowed three cars parked on the street and explosions sprayed flames up to 100m into the air.

The fire started above the Mulhern Waste Oil depot on Wing St, Wingfield, about 11.30am  (Tuesday, local time…. ed.)

One firefighter was taken to hospital with burns to his hand after a silo of flammable fluid exploded just before 1.30pm. MFS deputy chief officer Mick Smith was confident crews had "knocked down" the flames by 7pm but said the site would continue to smoulder and crews would remain on site.

He said high fuel loads made extinguishing the fire extremely difficult and efforts had focused on preventing the blaze from spreading. "It is difficult, it's hot, and we have had some issues to deal with," he said. "It's a very large fire, there is oil and fuel that's been involved and that has flowed and spread. There is a very high fire load."

Mr Smith said damage was evident beyond the Mulhern site but the extent was not known. "I expect there to be some damage to some of the neighbouring businesses," he said.

The owner of the business is helping truck out firehose runoff that is being captured by temporary daming to keep it out of the storm drains.  There is concern that more explosions could occur as the smoldering fire continues to spread and that would send the fire out of control again.  The fire brigade is planning on being onsite throughout the night.

ABC News has MORE.

7News has some excellent aerial footage of the fire that best illustrates the exposure hazards the firefighters are facing:

This is an ongoing incident and no further information is yet available.  Firegeezer will update this report when there are more facts disclosed.

Hat tip:  Darren V.

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"He smelled and reeked of chemicals…."

A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT IN BUSHKILL TWP., PENNSYLVANIA, Wednesday afternoon caused police to think that the bike was carrying chemicals used to make "meth"  and called out a haz mat response. 

Nazareth Patch

The Lehigh Valley Express-Times explains:

Bushkill Police Chief Stan Coopersmith said the crash occurred about 4 p.m. at the intersection of Old Allentown and Male roads. The male motorcyclist, who is yet to be identified by police, left the scene and returned to his nearby home in the 300 block of Old Allentown Road.

Coopersmith said the man’s friend returned to the crash scene to pick up the motorcycle, met police and led authorities to the man’s house. At the home, Coopersmith said the man had a strong odor of chemicals coming from his body. "He smelled and reeked of chemicals," Coopersmith said.

At first, according to early reports, the police had feared that the motorcycle was a "mobile meth lab" because the rider was covered with an oily substance and had the unusual chemical smell emanating from his skin.  The biker, along with some other people in the house and the ambulance crew that had treated him were all decontaminated on the site in the home's front yard.

Nazareth Patch

The full haz mat response brought emergency management officials from three counties along with several haz mat units from surrounding fire departments and an air ambulance.

Nazareth Patch

No meth lab was found anywhere, nor were any chemicals discovered. Police are still investigating into what the motorcyclist was covered with and why he smelled the way he did.

The Nazareth Patch has MORE.

Hat tip:  Carmine S.

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Repeat Offender Involved

THE FIREFIGHTERS IN GOTTINGEN, GERMANY, were called out at 4 am Friday morning for a fire in a chemical storage building.  The firefighters dispatched to the call in an industrial park found smoke and fire inside the rented storage facility and chose not to enter the building.  They are not sure what chemicals are stored in there, nor how much.  So all firefighting efforts have been conducted from the outside.

HNA / Rampfel

Air samplings have indicated no hazard to the neighboring area, but the fire hose runoff has turned the drainage stream a nice green color.  The authorities involved say that this is not a toxic hazard either and it is being allowed to flow.

HNA / Rampfel

So far it is not known what caused the fire to start, but it was easily contained to the building of origin.  However, the fire continues to burn in the building nine hours later.

The renter of the building had leased it with the understanding that they would be making furniture there, but instead converted it into an illegal chemical storage facility.  This was a surprise to the firefighters.

HNA / Rampfel

It has just been learned in the past few hours that the company involved, GeReSo was charged four years ago in a scandal where several buildings in the Moringer District were being used illegally to store toxic chemicals and some building inspectors had taken bribes to overlook the criminal violations.  It cost that locality more than 200,000 euros to clean up the mess.  This current site had been "inspected" just a few months ago and no violations were noted at the time.

HNA has the details of this incident along with a 33-image photo gallery HERE.
Gottingen Fire Brigade WEBSITE.

Hat tip:  Christian Lewalter, Feuerwehr Weblog.

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