GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. -- A diesel tanker truck rolled over in Greenwood Village Sunday morning and firefighters spent more than seven hours cleaning up a 100-gallon fuel spill and off-loading the remaining diesel so the rig could be safely removed. 
South Metro Fire Rescue Authority=E2=80=99s Hazmat Team and firefighters responded to the tanker rollover near the Comfort Dental Amphitheater about 7:15 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. The tanker was making a U-turn at the intersection of Greenwood Plaza Boulevard and East Caley Avenue when it flipped onto its side. 
The tanker driver was not injured. But it took the hazmat team until about 2:45 p.m. to clean up the diesel spill and offload nearly 3,000 gallons from toppled tanker into another truck, officials said.

It was a very early morning wake-up call for some people living in Lincoln County, who were evacuated from their homes after a chemical spill.

It all happened about one o'clock Sunday morning, when the Stanford fire chief says an employee at the city's water plant was trying to close off a chlorine tank.

But in the process of doing that, he says that worker accidentally cracked a tank next to it, causing chlorine to start leaking out. That worker immediately evacuated the water plant, and hazmat crews were called in from several counties to clean it up. The fire department evacuated several homes nearby, and people were sent to a nearby school as a precaution.

"Chlorine is heavier than air, it stays down to the ground, so air doesn't move it around as well, so you'll pick it up and breathe it very easily, and it's very dangerous to breathe," said Stanford Fire Department Chief Kenneth McDaniels.

But the fire chief says luckily none of that chlorine leaked outside the building, and once it was cleaned up inside the water plant, everyone evacuated was allowed to go back home by about four o'clock Sunday morning.

Fire officials say they were lucky, because if any of that chlorine had spilled outside the plant, they would have had to evacuate a five square mile area, including the entire city of Stanford.

A Tomball paint warehouse burned for nearly 16 hours Saturday.
Several callers reported flames shooting from American Coatings, a painting manufacturer in the 10600 block of Mahaffey Road, around 2:40 a.m., said Dean Hensley, an arson investigator with the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office.
About a dozen agencies responded to the blaze, including the Klein, Ponderosa, Cy-Fair, Magnolia, Rose Hill, Houston and Cypress Creek fire departments as well as Harris County hazmat and emergency management officials.
No one has been injured. A person of interest, arrested on unrelated charges, is being questioned.
Several households were evacuated in the early hours of the emergency, but everyone has been told to return to their homes, he said.
The Harris County Department of Public Health and Environmental Services monitored air quality for nearly 11 hours into the early afternoon Saturday and found nothing to prompt further directives for residents to evacuate or shelter in place.
Agency spokeswoman Rita Obey said the department=E2=80=99s devices can determine whether gases or particulate matter exists at dangerously high levels.
"We had our air monitors up and we did not detect anything above normal levels. There was some faint intermittent ground-level smoke,=" Obey said. "We monitor downwind of whatever the event is and we try to get in the areas where people may be impacted to see if there are any readings, but we didn=E2=80=99t find anything.=" .

(KMOV)-- Hazmat crews in North St. Louis County had to rush to clean up a dangerous chemical spill.
This happened Thursday night on Old St. Charles Road and Smiley.
Crews had to shut down the intersection for one hour to clean up the mess.
Authorities said this all started when a drum carrying chemicals fell off the back of a truck. Crews checked the container but there were no labels to describe what the drum contained on the inside. Firefighters said the container carried some type of fuming acid.
There were no reported injures. The Pattonville Fire Protection district was one of the first to respond.
Authorities said they are still looking for the driver of the truck. 
 

HONEYVILLE, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Hazmat and medical helicopters have been called to the scene of a semi crash on I-15 in Box Elder County. 

Dispatchers tell ABC 4 the truck was headed southbound on I-15 near milemarker 374 in Honeyville around 5:30 a.m. Friday morning when it crashed and plunged into a river. 

No other vehicles were involved. 

The truck was carrying some kind of cleaning product.  It's unclear how much of that solution leaked into the water. 

A medical helicopter was called to the scene. Two people were injured, but only one person was flown to a nearby hospital.

MARTINSVILLE =E2=80=94 Hazardous fumes at a Bradford Woods swimming pool in Morgan County hospitalized a child camper and three adults Thursday after a strange reaction in the pool=E2=80=99s chemical room.

Thirty swimmers were evacuated from the pool area late in the afternoon after they smelled the strong fumes, Bradford Woods director Shay Dawson said. In all, nurses evaluated 18 youth campers and the 13 adults who were supervising them at Camp Riley, a summer program for children ages 8 to 18 who have physical disabilities.

Emergency medical responders and fire officials also evaluated the children and adults, most of whom were fine.

Apparently 6 to 8 ounces of muriatic acid mixed with chlorine in a chemical room near the pool, Dawson said. Swimmers who had been closest to the irritating fumes appeared to be most affected.

Dawson couldn=E2=80=99t explain Thursday how the two chemicals became mixed, or why.

A nine-year-old girl was two metres away from a chemical explosion that occured in a clandestine methylamphetamine labratory in Maddington overnight, police said. 

A man and woman have been charged with trying to manufacture the illegal drug. 

Assistant Commissioner Stephen Brown said the child had been taken into custodial care. 

He said she was found cowering in a bath tub, metres from the explosion. 

"It was absolutely miraculous that child was not injured seriously or actually killed in the event," he said. 

"So it is something that causes great concern." 

It is the third incident a child has been found living in clandestine drug labratories in the past week.

URBANA =E2=80=94 One student was injured as a result of a fire involving hazardous materials late Thursday afternoon at Roger Adams Lab, 600 S. Mathews Ave., U. 

Urbana Fire Department Division Chief Russell Chism said firefighters were called to the lab at 4:59 p.m. after an automatic alarm went off on the fourth floor. 

When firefighters arrived at 5:03 p.m., they found a small fire in a ventilation hood on the fourth floor. 

Chism said a student doing work under a ventilation hood accidentally started a fire when research chemicals encountered flammable vapors from another chemical nearby. 

Chism said firefighters used dry powdered chemicals to put out the fire. 

Firefighters had the fire under control within about five minutes, Chism said. 

Chism said all persons in the building were evacuated, but he didn=E2=80=99t know how many people were in the building at the time of the fire. 

Urbana Fire Chief Mike Dilley said one man, a student, was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana for treatment of minor burns. 

Nobody else was injured, Chism said. 

Dilley said damage was limited to the interior of the hood, with damage estimated at about $200.

FARMINGTON, N.M. (KRQE) - A Schlumberger spokesperson said it appears a valve failure on a primary holding tank caused a chemical leak at the company's Farmington plant over the weekend.

Mumbai: Wednesday=E2=80=99s chlorine gas leak at Mumbai Port Trust=E2=80=99s yard in Sewri was a litmus test for the agencies involved in disaster management, but they managed only a slipshod job, and the leak had to be finally plugged with the help of private chemical companies

The poor level of preparedness was borne out by the lack of even basic amenities and equipment required to handle such situations. For one, the road leading to the dock is in such bad shape that a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation vehicle responding to the emergency got stuck in a puddle along the way. Construction of the alternative road to the dock is yet to be completed. 

Worse still, both the Mumbai Fire Brigade, and especially the one operated by the port, are not equipped to handle a disaster like this.

The leak was first noticed at around 4am by an on-duty security guard, who rushed to his cabin to call the fire station, located in the same yard. However, when MbPT firemen reached the spot, they realised that it was a chlorine leak, which they did not have the required equipment to deal with.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade was summoned for help, which, too, was not geared up to tackle the situation, and began spraying water on the chlorine cylinder as a routine exercise. 
When senior fire officials realised this measure was not enough, they contacted private chemical companieslike Herdillia Chemicals, Century Rayon, and RCF for guidance. Safety officers from these companies reached the yard after about five hours and took stock of the situation. Soon after, Ulhas Thakur, safety manager of Herdillia Chemicals, plugged the kleak.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was contacted. A specialised NDRF team, stationed at its base in Talegaon, reached the spot by 12.30pm with a self container breather (SCB) to neutralise the chlorine in the cylinder. But when MbPT officials were asked to provide a crane and weigh machine to reach the cylinder, all they could do was bring in a private crane, but one which did not have a weigh machine. Finally, Century Rayon officers called their own weigh machine from their plant in Shahad, Kalyan. The machine arrived at around 2.30pm, and only then could the NDRF start its work.

MbPT officials booked
"Th e police have filed a case against MbPT authorities under sections 284, 308, 324 and 337 of the Indian Penal Code (pertaining to negligence in dealing with poisonous substances and culpable homicide not amounting to murder), along with sections 7, 8, 9 and 15 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (mishandling of hazardous substances),=" said senior police inspector Rajan Bhogle of Sewri police station.

Union cries foul, says safety steps inadequate
umbai Port Trust workers have blamed the company for the incident. The Transport and Dock Workers Union, a representative body of dock workers, has demanded that all unclaimed hazardous goods lying inside the dock premises should be immediately cleared. RM Murthy, the union secretary, said such hazardous cargo posed maximum threat to the workers. Several of those being treated in hospitals are dock workers. At least 13 contract labourers, who were working within 50 metres of the spot where the cylinder leaked, are among those who fell ill. Four are in the critical care unit at JJ hospital.
K Mohan, who was present when the incident occurred, said that the gas began leaking around 3.20am. "Since I was closest to the site, I raised an alarm after sensing something amiss. We had already inhaled gas by the time we came out.=" Mohan has been working at the dock as a loader for more than two decades. He complained about the lack of safety equipment. "There are no smoke detection alarms or fire alarms.="

Permission to dispose of cylinders sought 2 yrs ago
he Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) might not be the only agency to be blamed for the debacle. Though there is no denying that the port trust had delayed in disposing of the cylinders, other agencies too are to be blamed. A senior MbPT official said that permissions had been sought at least two years ago from the controller 
of explosives and customs to dispose of (auction) the consignment comprising 105 cylinders. "The clearance is still to arrive,=" the official said. The consignment belonged to a private firm =E2=80=94 port trust officials identified it as Agro Gases Pvt Ltd =E2=80=94 and it was brought in the dock in April 2001. The official said that the firm never claimed the consignment after the customs department raised some objections. According to government rules, the port trust can penalise a firm if it does not claim a consignment within a month of it being unloaded at the dock. Also, the port trust can auction a consignment if it is not claimed within six months.

Desert Hills and Lake Havasu City firefighters joined forces in response to a hazardous material situation Wednesday after receiving reports of two 55-gallon drums dumped in the parking lot of a closed business in Desert Hills. 


Jayne Hanson/News-Herald Photo. Two Lake Havasu City firefighters investigate the unknown contents of two 55-gallon drums Wednesday left abandoned in the parking lot of a closed Desert Hills business in the 3000 block of London Bridge Road. 


The hazardous material tested as gasoline. 

Desert Hills Fire Department responded the incident in the 3000 block of London Bridge Road to find the two barrels, which were not leaking when first-responding firefighters arrived, according to Fire Chief Mat Espinoza. One of the barrels was marked "acetone=" and the second was marked "automa tic transmission fluid,=" he said. Desert Hills Fire Department responded with Engine 21 and Rescue 2. 

Lake Havasu City Fire Department Hazmat team was called in to assist about 1:16 p.m. The firefighters arrived on scene geared up to identify the substances. 

"We were able to test the chemical (within the drums) and it was unleaded gasoline. One of the barrels is about half full and one was about three quarters full,=" said Lake Havasu City Acting Battalion Chief Jeff Kemp. 

The Havasu-based fire department responded with Engine 2, the department=E2=80 =99s Hazmat trailer, which is Support 2. Truck 1, staffed with two Hazmat-trained firefighters, the department=E2=80=99s rehab unit and Havasu Fire Marshal Chip Shilosky also responded to the incident. 

Havasu BC Kemp reported the crews were on scene about two hours. 

"It was incredibly hot (Wednesday afternoon) =E2=80=A6 if it would have been a chemical, it would have taken longer,=" he said.