Hotwork Accidents #3
This page was last updated on 05/06/2010
Workers spark fire in complex
2001-11-13
Construction workers sparked a fire inside an exclusive northwest Oklahoma City condominium complex Monday. The fire at the gated Waterford Condominiums, 6206 Waterford Blvd., started about 2:45 p.m., fire Battalion Chief John Moad said. The workers remodeling the unoccupied condominium escaped. Moad said they may have been welding when the fire started. Atop the roof, firefighters cut a hole to ventilate smoke and flames coming from the second floor. No damage estimate was available and the cause was under investigation Monday.
Industrial building damaged by fire
Ruth Fuller, Published November 13, 2001
BEACH PARK — Sparks from a welding tool apparently ignited a fire Sunday that caused more than $100,000 in damage to a Beach Park industrial building, authorities said Monday. Bonnie Brook Fire Protection District Chief Michael Yeager said the fire, at about 11 a.m., destroyed a section of the building, that houses five businesses. Sparks apparently ignited rags on a workbench, near where an employee was welding, Yeager said. Several barrels of racing fuel stored in the building along with two trucks caused small explosions, he said. No injuries were reported.
No one hurt in two weekend Elgin fires
By Tom O’Konowitz Daily Herald Staff Writer
Elgin firefighters on Sunday were investigating the causes of two house fires that occurred earlier in the weekend. No one was injured in either fire, but the houses both sustained moderate damage according to authorities, who said the fires appeared accidental in nature. The first fire was reported about 5:20 p.m. Saturday at 270 Lessenden Place on Elgin’s near east side. Fire Capt. Rudy Horist said that a resident of the house was using a blow torch to repair some pipes in his bathroom when it apparently ignited part of a wall. The fire spread inside the wall, and the man called 911 before he and his family evacuated. Firefighters brought the fire under control in about a half hour, and damage was contained mostly to the bathroom, Horist said. An exact damage estimate was not available Sunday. The second fire of the day was reported shortly after 8 p.m. at 274 Waverly Drive on Elgin’s east side. Horist said residents called the fire department after realizing a fire had started in the upper part of their home’s chimney. The family had been using their fireplace when the fire started, but the exact cause of the fire was not yet determined. Flames spread across 30 feet of the home’s roof and into the attic, and firefighters extinguished it in less than half an hour. No one was injured, and damage to the roof and attic is estimated at $15,000. Firefighters were continuing to investigate both incidents, but said they both appeared accidental.
Fire damages St. Anne’s Hill house
By Lisa Perry, Dayton Daily News
DAYTON | An acetylene torch ignited a house fire that extensively damaged a home in the historic St. Anne’s Hill district just after noon Saturday. A first-floor resident of 1427 E. Fourth St. was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. The olive-green, two-story frame home is mid-block between Dutoit and Henry streets. The fire began on the ground level floor while someone was winterizing the duplex using the acetylene torch and tar. The fire spread quickly up through the walls to the second story and the attic, District Fire Chief Jim Beach said. Beach estimated damage to the structure at $25,000. Much of the damage was visible from the northwestern corner of the home closest to where the fire started.
State investigating the death of Bellevue auto shop worker
By SHEILA BURKE, Staff Writer
Yesterday’s death of a 57-year-old Fairview man burned during an explosion at a Bellevue auto repair shop has prompted a state investigation into last Friday’s accident. ”We will begin investigating immediately,” said Nikki Crosslin, a spokeswoman with the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration. TOSHA, which investigates workplace hazards and accidents any time a worker is killed on the job, will determine if any workplace safety standards were violated. James W. ”Johnny” Roberts died just before 7 a.m. yesterday after sustaining burns on 80% of his body when a 500-gallon oil tank exploded at the business at 7400 Old Harding Pike. Another employee of the business, James Ivey, 38, of Nashville, was also injured in the accident. He suffered burns on more than 30% of his body and was in critical but stable condition in Vanderbilt University Medical Center yesterday, hospital spokesman Clinton Colmenares said. Roberts and Ivey were standing at the end of the tank when it exploded. Nashville Fire Department officials said the explosion started when sparks from a blow torch dropped on the tank and ignited the flammable liquid inside. A third employee had been standing on a ladder and cutting a piece of metal above the oil tank when the sparks fell. Roberts and Ivey were engulfed in a fireball when the tank exploded. TOSHA usually issues a report in four to six weeks and has the power to set financial penalties against Bellevue Auto Repair if the company violated safety standards, Crosslin said. Repeated phone calls to Bellevue Auto Repair yesterday afternoon went unanswered. Roberts’ brother, Stanley Roberts, has set up a fund for the families of both victims. Anyone wanting to help the families can go to any AmSouth Bank branch and ask to contribute to the fund called ”Stanley D. Roberts, C/O James Roberts and James Ivey Burn Victims.”
Investigators: Torch Sparked Ballroom Fire
Firefighters pinpointed the cause of a Midtown ballroom fire last Friday, KMBC reported. Investigators determined that workers using a torch on some pipes accidentally started the fire at the Monoco Ballroom, which is located at 31st and Cherry streets. The historic structure was being renovated at the time of the fire. Damage to the building and contents is estimated at $275,000.
Store evacuated after construction fire
By Shana Gallentine
More than 200 customers and employees evacuated the Sam’s Club on Atlanta Highway Monday morning after a construction fire broke out near the building. A portable crane being used to build an addition to the store caught fire shortly after 11 a.m., prompting store managers to evacuate the building. Though the crane was badly charred, no one was injured in the fire and the blaze did not spread to other areas. Capt. Melvin Jones of the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department said it took about 30 minutes to put out the fire because the blaze apparently caused the crane to leak flammable propane, gasoline and hydraulic fluid. By early afternoon, Jones said it was still unclear how the blaze started, and firefighters had been unable to find the crane operator for information. Jimmy Bellew, a maintenance employee at Sam’s Club, said he had just left the construction area when the fire broke out, and said sparks had been flying down from where workers were welding ceiling beams. He speculated that the sparks may have ignited the blaze. Once everyone was evacuated to the parking lot, Bellew said the crowd heard a loud booming noise that sounded like an explosion. Despite talk that the propane tank had exploded, Jones said that was not the case. ”A tire exploded — the propane tank never did explode,” Jones said. ”… Our main goal was to get the fire out before the propane tank exploded.” Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, October 30, 2001.
Midland chemical company catches on fire, prompts resident evacuation
By Naomi Watts, Odessa American
MIDLAND – Dozens of south Midland residents were evacuated briefly Tuesday when a chemical company caught fire. The Midland Fire Department was called to a chemical fire at Tetraco, located at 2500 W. Francis Ave., shortly before noon. Midland County Fire Marshall Dale Little said an overhead door company was cutting a hole in a wall in a warehouse when sparks from the blow torch caught insulation on fire, which then ignited two barrels of diesel fuel. The fire concerned officials because three 500-gallon tanks of methanol were being kept in the warehouse as well, said MFD investigator Michael Cota. Methanol becomes a toxic gas when burned, Cota said. Residents in a half-mile radius around the chemical company, which is located in the Cotton Flats area of South Midland, were evacuated for about an hour, Little said. We evacuated the area until we found out what the chemicals were, Little said. Any time you’re dealing with chemicals that are unknown, it’s always dangerous. Cota said the fire department used an alcohol-resistant soap foam and carbon dioxide extinguisher to put out the fire in about an hour. Residents were then allowed to return home. No injuries were reported, although the building suffered structure damage, Little said. Tetraco officials declined to comment on the fire.
Extensive Damage Done To Landmark Building
CARMICHAEL, Calif. – A fire tore through a popular Mexican restaurant Tuesday morning in Carmichael a day before it was scheduled reopen. Jose’s, at Fair Oaks and Garfield, has been serving customers for more than 25 years old, while the building is about 90 years old. Investigators said the restaurant was destroyed and the bar heavily damaged. “When I realized it was Jose’s it just made me sick,” JoAnn Hunting, a Carmichael resident, said. “Because, like I said, this is a landmark. It has been here forever.” Jose’s owner Bill Neely said the restaurant has been closed since March for remodeling that was necessary after a kitchen fire. The final inspection before it reopened was supposed to take place Tuesday, he said. A construction worker smelled gas and saw smoke before calling 911 about 8:30 a.m., according to firefighters, who rushed to get two large propane tanks out of the building. “There are several attick spaces and add-ons to the restaurant, and the fire worked its way into the attick,” Capt. Pat Ellis of Sacramento Metro Fire said. Ellis said that the fire was caused by someone using a blowtorch on a construction project in the kitchen.
Construction accidents endanger downtown Cherokee businesses
Times Staff Report, October 18, 2001
CHEROKEE-Cherokee firefighters and Alliant Energy workers averted yet another potential disaster Tuesday in downtown Cherokee. Firefighters were summoned to the alley behind the Lewis Hotel for a small fire which produced a large amount of smoke in the basement area. “We got the call at 1:10 p.m. and we had a lot of smoke visible in the basement,” said Fire Chief Jack Olson. “We looked in the building and found nothing. It gave us the impression it was on the inside when it was on the outside.” In searching the alley, the firefighters found that workers tearing up concrete in the alley had accidentally set an old doorframe afire with cutting torches. The doorframe had been uncovered by the work and the workers had been cutting away some metal in order to better fill the void. The fire caused quite a commotion for residents in the Lewis Hotel and firefighters remained on scene 30-45 minutes to make sure the fire was fully extinguished. Firefighters were promptly recalled at 4:03 p.m. for a gas leak behind the White Rose. During the course of their work, employees of Deer Valley Land Improvement accidentally snagged a gas meter line with a backhoe. The leak was large enough to allow residents on Maple Street to hear the whistling. “They pulled it pretty good,” Olson said of the leak. “Basically we had enough of the pipe sticking out that we could pinch it off.” In shutting off the leak, all that stood between downtown Cherokee and disaster was a vice grip. Some buildings were evacuated, but only long enough to ventilate them and get rid of the fumes, Olson noted. The perimeter extended from just near Letsche’s Bike Shop west to Fourth Street and south to Maple Street. This was the sixth gas leak suffered in downtown Cherokee since work on the alleys started in early summer. After the first several leaks, Alliant Energy workers were sent to supervise the digging.
Cutting torch starts fire at warehouse
10/17/01
WASHINGTON TWP. – A smoky fire broke out in the old 7Up warehouse on Port Colden Road after workers clearing the building of trash accidentally set fire to a wood pallet. Police said a worker was using a cutting torch to remove a metal hopper when sparks landed on the pallet and ignited it. The worker tried to douse the blaze but it became smoky after spreading to plastic material left in the building from when it was used by the soda manufacturer, police said. A nearby resident saw the smoke and called authorities at 5 p.m. Kurt Merrill, chief of the Washington Township Fire Co., said firefighters extinguished the fire within 10 minutes of arrival. No one was injured.
Fire leads to evacuation of Center City tower
INQUIRER STAFF REPORT
Hundreds of office workers were evacuated this afternoon after a fire in the Penn Mutual Towers in the 500 block of Walnut Street. Fire officials said one worker, who co-workers said may have suffered a heart attack, was taken to a hospital, but there were no other injuries. Fire officials said the blaze was started by workers using a torch to dismantle a cooling tower on the roof of the high rise building. Some material inside the tower caught fire. “It was burning pretty good, but it was all contained,” said Fire Battalion Chief Robert Noble. “None of it got onto the building,” The one-alarm blaze was reported at 2:47 p.m. and was placed under control at 3:15 p.m. Hundreds of office workers were allowed to return to the building at 3:42 p.m.
Fire Damages Haven Building
Work on the roof at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. may have sparked the blaze.
Thursday, October 11, 2001, By WILL VASH, The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN — A fire Wednesday night damaged a Winter Haven office building.
Firefighters from Winter Haven and Polk County responded at 5:45 p.m. to A.G.Edwards & Sons Inc. at 1501 First St. S. to find the roof of the building in flames, said Winter Haven Assistant Fire Chief Bill Sigler. About 40 firefighters fought the fire, and it was under control at about 7 p.m., Sigler said. Workers were reroofing the building earlier in the afternoon before the fire occurred. Sigler said the workers were using propane torches to meld overlapping rubber segments to make the surface watertight, which is a common practice. He said the torches probably sparked a 1-inch-thick fiber insulation board below the rubber, which wasn’t noticeable until flames erupted later. The roof work was to have been completed this morning. Ron Snyder, 62, assistant manager of the investment company, said several employees were still in the building when the fire began. “The main thing is there were no injuries at all,” Snyder said. “There’s probably going to be a lot of water damage.” Snyder said confidential customer information and investments were safe. He said the company would seek a temporary location until workers could go back into the building. Sigler said the interior of the building, which normally houses 19 employees, probably suffered water damage, but total damage amounts were not available.
Worker Injured In Construction Site Accident
Man Suffers First- and Second-Degree Burns
OKLAHOMA CITY — A construction worker suffered first-degree burns to his face following an explosion at a site near 2900 W. Memorial Road. One of the workers was welding on air conditioning ducts when a paint can caught fire. When he tried to move the can, it exploded. The worker suffered second-degree burns to 18 percent of his body. Doctors are also concerned that he may have inhaled the paint fumes.
Fire displaces 14 people
By Ed Brock, October 04, 2001
The fire at Brentwood Manor apartments on Old Dixie Road started around 3:07 p.m. as a result of some work being done by a maintenance worker employed by the complex, said Clayton County Fire Department spokesman Deputy Chief Jeff Hood. “He was soldering some pipes in a chaseway (a utility passageway) there and the torch he was using started the fire,” Hood said. The fire traveled quickly up the chaseway to the attic and burned through the roof, Hood said. Some residents were in the building at the time of the fire, Hood said, but they were evacuated and nobody was injured. Hood said the fire was under control by 3:24 p.m., but fire damage left two apartments unlivable and smoke and water damage left three other apartments in the same condition. “We did have to call Red Cross in to relocate some people for tonight,” Hood said. Six children were among the evacuees, Hood said. The fire appeared to be an accident, Hood said, and the maintenance worker had tried to extinguish the blaze with a fire extinguisher shortly after it began. “When it starts in a chaseway like that, it’s just like a chimney and it travels,” Hood said. Six fire engines, two “aerial” or ladder trucks and two ambulances responded to the fire, Hood said.
Minor fire at Topaz Lodge
Staff Reports, Reno Gazette-Journal, Wednesday October 3rd, 2001
A fire at the Topaz Lodge 20 miles south of Gardnerville on U.S. 395 forced the evacuation Tuesday of about 50 customers from the lodge’s casino and restaurant. No one was injured, and damage from the 5:25 p.m. fire was minimal, said Topaz Lodge controller Deanna Newman. The 5:25 p.m. fire was apparently sparked when roofers using a torch ignited some of the building’s insulation, said Joe Warren of the Douglas County dispatch center. The smoldering insulation produced a large amount of smoke, some of which got into the building’s ventilation system, Warren said. Guests in the lodge’s 102 rooms weren’t evacuated.
German court recommends fines for defendants in 1996 Duesseldorf airport fire
The Associated Press, 10/1/01 4:39 PM
DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Charges against eight people accused in a deadly 1996 fire at Duesseldorf airport should be dropped if the defendants agree to pay fines, a German court recommended Monday. Seventeen people were killed and 88 others injured by the fire on April 11, 1996, which spread along concealed, plastic-coated wiring from an outdoor construction site where welders had been working. Investigators found safety regulations hadn’t been followed, and prosecutors brought charges including causing death by negligence against employees of the welding company, officials at the airport, architects and firefighters. But the court in Duesseldorf said Monday the fire wouldn’t have happened without “a whole chain of tragic circumstances,” for which “no one accused in this trial can be held responsible.” The charges should be dropped if the defendants pay fines of between $2,800 and $18,700, according to their ability to pay, the court said. Charges against another person should be dropped because of lack of evidence, it said. It is now up to prosecutors and the defendants to decide whether to accept the proposal. The court said it wants to make a final decision Oct. 11. A new passenger terminal to replace buildings badly damaged in the fire opened in July. The rest of the airport, Germany’s third-biggest, is to be modernized by early 2003.
Roof fire forces 600 from school
By Tim Potter, The Wichita Eagle
Roofers atop Wichita’s Gammon Elementary School accidentally started a small fire Friday that sent smoke into classrooms and forced the evacuation of almost 600 students, officials said. Although the fire spread light smoke over about two-thirds of the school, no one was injured or overcome by smoke, fire Battalion Chief Dan McClure said. School staff evacuated students to an area outside the school, then ushered them into the school gymnasium when it was deemed safe to enter the school. The gym had been untouched by smoke. Crews aired out the rest of the school, at 3240 N. Rushwood St. Later, fire officials decided it was safe to take children back into their classrooms, McClure said. A preliminary investigation found that roofers using a torch to heat asphalt shingles accidentally ignited boards about 11 a.m., McClure said. The fire started near part of the school’s air-conditioning system, which sucked smoke into the school, he said. The fire probably caused less than $1,000 in damage, McClure said. While students sat in the gym, McClure and school officials tried to reassure them that the fire was out, the smoke was gone and they were safe. The students seemed not to be worried as teachers led them in songs. The school brought in new lunches for the children out of concern that lunches already prepared might have been tainted by the smoke, principal Phil Fullerton said. The kids ate lunch in their classrooms. Students and teachers weren’t the only temporary evacuees. Someone made sure that Carmel, a tan guinea pig, was evacuated from a second-grade classroom.
Fire engulfs Mapleton home; cause unknown
CALEB WARNOCK The Daily Herald on Thursday, September 27
MAPLETON — A $300,000 home burned hot and fast Wednesday, as neighbors and firefighters worked to contain the blaze. “It was a total loss, I can tell you that,” said Sgt. Jeremy Anderson, who was doing a fire investigation in the home at 915 N. 1140 West. Dan Good, the homeowner, was reportedly welding a water heater in his basement when the blaze started shortly after noon, Anderson said. The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but the welding is being considered, he said. “I don’t believe firefighters could have done anything,” Anderson said. “By the time they arrived, the house was consumed.” Firefighters assisted neighbors in keeping neighboring homes from burning because the heat was so extreme. Tracy Jorgensen, who’s home is south of the Good home, received a call at work alerting her to the blaze. She arrived home to find a neighbor spraying her house with a garden hose to keep it from catching fire. “The fire broke two of our windows and melted the blinds,” she said. “There was also some water in a window well.” Jorgensen said she spoke with Good after the fire and he had “some minor burns and redness on his arms, but other than that he seemed OK. He was spraying down the neighbor’s house with a hose and apologized to us and asked us if there was anything he could do.” His family is getting a lot of support from neighbors, Jorgensen said. “I feel really bad,” she said. “I wish there was more I could do.” The Good family is reportedly staying with family in the area.
Debris burns at Beaumont Mills fire
By TERESA KILLIAN. Staff Writer
Anita Roseburgh watched giant, low-hanging clouds of smoke drift Wednesday night from a Beaumont Mills fire. “Black smoke was everywhere,” said Roseburgh, who said she dropped her soda when she heard a loud boom about 7 p.m. Wednesday while she walked near the corner of North Pine and Liberty streets. “I thought it was a bomb.” Firefighters suspected the blaze was actually caused by sparks from a cutting torch used during demolition of a Beaumont Mills building, said Assistant Commander Dale Worthy of the Spartanburg Public Safety Department Fire Division. The sparks ignited debris on the ground, he said. Firefighters had the initial fire under control within 15 minutes, he said. As a green crane combed through the debris, flames would resurface from heaps of debris and metal under the building’s blue frame. The building was part of the former 26-acre division of the Spartan Mills empire. Spartanburg businessman Jimmy Gibbs, who watched firefighters Wednesday, said a surgical center is being constructed on the site and should be completed by April. Plans call for a medical office building and surgery center for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System to be built on the property. When complete, the hospital system will relocate the Same Day Surgery Center, currently at the Spartanburg Hospital for Restorative Care on Serpentine Drive. SRHS has agreed to lease the facility for 121/2 years from Gibbs, at which point the hospital system will take it over. Plans initially called for one side of the property to be the surgery center and office building and the other side to include a Motor Racing Museum of the South and the S.C. Athletics Hall of Fame.
UPDATE, Widow of worker killed on film set sues Columbia Pictures
ASSOCIATED PRESS, September 20, 2001
LOS ANGELES – The wife of a crew worker who was killed on the set of the upcoming “Spider Man” movie sued Columbia Pictures. The wrongful death suit filed Wednesday in Superior Court seeks unspecified damages. A call made to Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, wasn’t immediately returned early Thursday. Tim Holcombe, 45, of Monrovia died March 6 while welding sets for the film when a forklift he had been operating toppled onto a construction basket in which he was riding, investigators said. Another worker in the basket was not seriously injured. Also named in the suit is equipment maker Ingersoll-Rand. Representatives from that company couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday. The lawsuit is the second setback for Sony this week. Company executives decided to pull a “Spider Man” trailer from theaters and the Internet because of last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the East Coast. The trailer contains a scene in which a helicopter carrying fleeing robbers gets trapped in a giant spider web strung between the World Trade Center towers. The giant structures collapsed when a pair of planes slammed into them last week. Columbia Pictures was previously fined nearly $59,000 for workplace violations stemming from Holcombe’s death. “Spider-Man,” based on the Marvel Comics hero, is scheduled to open in May and will star Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and Kirsten Dunst
Fire forces evacuation at East Side Golf N’ Stuff
DAVID J. CIESLAK, Citizen Staff Writer, Sept 15, 2001
A small fire at an East Side amusement center Thursday forced firefighters to evacuate about 200 people from the building. An employee working in a maintenance room at Golf N’ Stuff, 6503 E. Tanque Verde Road, left a heat gun burning. The gun set fire to a box, said Capt. Joe Gulotta, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman. Flames spread through the maintenance room, which is part of Golf N’ Stuff’s arcade building, Gulotta said. Firefighters evacuated around 200 people at the facility when the fire started about 8:25 p.m., Gulotta said. No one was injured. Damage was estimated at $20,000. It took 20 firefighters about 15 minutes to extinguish the blaze, Gulotta added.
Former depot building catches fire
By: SUSAN CLARK PORTER, Times Staff Writer
A Thursday night fire at one of the industrial plant buildings at the former Seneca Army Depot is being blamed on construction work there. ROMULUS – Romulus Fire Chief Jim Hinman said the fire call came in at 9:42 p.m. from a resident at the nearby Spring Meadows apartment complex who noticed a glow in the sky. Hinman said a crew from Reece Crane and Rigging of Geneva was working on crane fixtures in the overhead area of the building Thursday afternoon. A Reece truck remained in the building, and torches were still positioned in the rafters last night. Hinman said investigators surmise that a stray spark or heat generated from welding could have ignited the blaze. “It could have been any number of things,” Hinman said. “[The fire] was in here cooking from the time the workers left until we got the alarm.” The fire chief estimated it took about an hour to bring the fire under control. About 100 firefighters were on the scene, including those from the Romulus, Ovid, Seneca Falls, Waterloo, Interlaken, Red Jacket, Lodi, Fayette, Hector and Willard fire departments. Hinman reported no water supply problems. Firefighters used three aerial trucks from the Seneca Falls, Waterloo and Ovid fire departments to fight the blaze. Hinman said when he arrived at the scene, the building was “closed up tighter than a drum” and had to be entered forcibly. The 16,000-square-foot building had no sprinkler system. By 11:30 p.m., firefighters had begun to roll up some hoses and some trucks were leaving the scene. Hinman said a few crews would probably remain at the site through the early morning hours. The building is among those that have been taken over by the Advantage Group, which has leased the buildings for over a year from the Seneca County Economic Development Corp. but will eventually own them. The Advantage Group is turning the depot site into a warehouse and distribution center for restaurant and retail equipment. Some of the company’s clients include Target, Bruegger’s Bagels and the Olive Garden. During the depot era, the structure was used as a site to refurbish industrial equipment. Pete Gorski, vice president of operations for the Advantage Group, said the company had been storing some of its equipment, such as a snowplow and truck, but the building had not been activated for use. “I was actually pleasantly surprised looking at it this morning,” said Gorski, noting that the building primarily suffered roof damage. “I don’t think there’s a lot of structural damage.” No damage estimates are available yet, but Gorski said the building is insured. Gorski was encouraged that a paint shop in the other end of the building appeared to have escaped unharmed. He said a structural engineer will be brought in to examine the building.
Fire Causes $400,000 Damage To Seaboard Plant
Updated: 10:38 a.m. CDT September 13, 2001
GUYMON, Okla. — A propane torch sparked a fire at Seaboard Farms’ only processing plant, causing $400,000 in damage and forcing the facility’s closure Wednesday, authorities said. The blaze began when roofing contractors left the torch burning during a lunch break on Tuesday, the Guymon Fire Department and state Fire Marshal’s office have determined. The torch ignited asphalt roofing and high winds helped move the flames across the roof quickly, a fire department news release said. Most of the damage was contained to the roof and there was some smoke damage inside, said Gary Reckrodt, Seaboard spokesman. Seaboard employees and animals at the facility escaped injury. Reckrodt said Seaboard officials believe the company will make up for its down time. “It’s not unheard of that you would go down for a couple of days,” Reckrodt said. The plant, which employs 2,300 people, could be running as soon as Thursday. Employees are working with U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors to make sure the building is sanitary. That often requires extra effort in the event of smoke damage, Reckrodt said. One of two shifts did not operate Tuesday and no shifts ran Wednesday, he said. Lost production time will be made up on Saturday and Sunday. The plant usually processes 16,000 hogs a day. Officials also said several cooling units and the plant’s ammonia refrigerant system were damaged in the fire, but no ammonia was released. “The burn patterns and other damage clearly indicate the area of the origin,” Guymon Fire Chief Ed Kirtley said. “The position of the cylinder valve and the damage to the cylinder also indicate the torch was left burning.”
UPDATE, Tosco settles with ex-welder for $8 million
Ironworker was burned last year
Tosco Corp. has agreed to pay $8 million for injuries to a former welder who accused the company of breaking a promise to eliminate all safety hazards at a refinery where four workers were killed in a devastating fire in 1999. Neal Jones, 47, who was burned the following year when fuel leaked into firefighting water at the plant near Martinez, received the offer just as his civil suit was about to start trial late last month. Evidence at the trial would have shown that Tosco managers refused to spend the money to close the link between fuel lines and the firefighting system at the same time they were pledging to Contra Costa County officials that all dangerous conditions at the refinery would be eliminated, said Jones’ attorney, Joseph Appel. “This was a safety project that was in their computer for 10 years,” Appel said. The attorney said he was prepared to present evidence that the valves separating the water and fuel lines had failed at least twice before, in 1990 and 1994. Tosco operators and engineers implored the company to eliminate the connection, but managers said the $200,000 cost was too high, Appel claims. Instead, the attorney said, they approved changing one valve at a cost of $450. When Tosco closed its refinery for months of repairs and retraining after the fatal 1999 fire, company engineers and staff again urged managers to separate the fuel and fire-water lines, he said. “They did nothing — zero,” Appel said. Tosco spokeswoman Mary Jen Beach was not immediately able to comment on Jones’ claim that Tosco knew the firefighting system was dangerous but refused to remedy it. Jones was welding on a platform between two fuel tanks in March 2000 when fellow workers sprayed firefighting water on the ground below him as a precaution — to keep stray sparks from creating a fire danger. But the water itself was contaminated with propane and butane, which ignited in a fireball. Jones was thrown back and flames reached under his helmet, melting his respirator, his attorney said. Beach said the company “accepts responsibility for this unfortunate accident.” “We believe that the settlement with Mr. Jones is fair and reasonable under the circumstances,” she said. Jones suffered facial burns, nerve injuries and a crushed wrist that ended his 25-year career as an ironworker. But Appel said Jones also sustained emotional trauma because he feared he was about to die like his friend Raynold “Tommy” Rodacker — one of four workers burned to death at the same refinery in 1999. Rodacker, Jones’ fellow employee at Bigge Crane Co., was on scaffolding high on a distillation tower on February 23, 1999, helping Tosco workers who were trying to repair a leaky pipeline. Suddenly fuel erupted from the pipe, soaked the workers and burst into flames. State and federal investigators blamed Tosco managers for failing to maintain deteriorating parts of the distillation unit and allowing the pipe repair job to go on while the high-temperature tower was running. The 1999 fire was the refinery’s second fatal accident in two years. Appel said he had asked Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge James Trembath to allow him to recount Tosco’s past accident record to the jury in Jones’ case. Trembath had not yet ruled on the issue when Tosco offered Jones a settlement. Appel said he planned to show the jury videotape of an appearance of Tosco CEO Thomas O’Malley before the county Board of Supervisors after the fatal 1999 fire, when O’Malley swore the refinery would be closed down unless he could assure its safety. If the case had gone to trial, Appel said he would have asked for an award in the hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to Jones for his injuries and in punitive damages to discourage future safety violations. Tosco settles the case as its proposed acquisition by Phillips Petroleum is pending before the Federal Trade Commission. The company had previously agreed to pay $21 million to the families of three of the workers who died in the 1999 fire and $4 million for emotional trauma to another ironworker who witnessed the deaths. Tosco repaired the fire-water system before selling its refinery near Martinez to Ultramar Diamond Shamrock. Tosco still operates a refinery in Rodeo.
Chicago Theater undamaged in fire
Published September 8, 2001
LOOP — A rubbish fire in the Chicago Theater during morning rush hour Friday snarled traffic on State Street between Lake and Randolph Streets but caused no injuries or damage to the theater, Chicago fire officials said. Welders working inside the theater, 175 N. State St., called the Fire Department at 8:06 a.m. after a welding torch ignited rubbish between the walls, said Fire Department spokesman Dennis Gault. The welding crew put out the flames before the first engine company arrived, Gault said. But without knowing the fire was out, another welder pulled the alarm in a fire box outside the theater, which summoned extra fire companies. Hook and ladder trucks filled the street. Police officers already directing traffic nearby rerouted vehicles onto Lake and Randolph. Firefighters left, and traffic returned to normal after a 15-minute inspection, Gault said.
Fire at China Oil Refinery
SHANGHAI, China (AP) – A fire ignited by a welding accident at an oil facility in southern China forced the evacuation of 20,000 people and sent flames shooting 150 feet into the air, a local official said Friday. Six workers were injured in the explosion Thursday at a pier used to unload oil tankers in Maoming, a port in Guangdong province, said Weng Guoqiang, a city official. The explosion forced the closure of China’s largest oil refinery, also in Maoming. The refinery operator, Sinopec Corp., said it has rerouted oil tankers to another port. State television on its noon newscast Friday showed emergency crews in Maoming spraying white foam onto flames leaping from damaged pipes. A welder ignited the fire while repairing a pipeline used to unload crude oil from ships, Weng said. The pipeline exploded, setting off a second and much larger blast involving all 12 of the pier’s pipelines. The fireball from the second explosion was more than 150 feet high, he said. Evacuated residents were allowed to return within a few hours.
S.L. officials angry over fire-settlement delays. 10 months after garage blaze, no final settlement
By SAM DiMEO, Staff Writer
SARANAC LAKE – Village officials are fuming over delays at reaching a settlement for vital maintenance trucks damaged in garage fire 10 months ago. “I think it is ludicrous,” said Village Manager Howard Riley. “We are sitting here in September with nothing done. We have asked to settle at least some of it. We are so exasperated.” On Nov. 1, a fire started by an improperly sited acetylene torch gutted the Village Garage on Van Buren Street. The damage was heavy enough for NYMIR, the building’s insurer, to declare it a total loss and to pay more than $490,000 for replacement. But the contents were insured by Travelers Insurance, which has paid the village about $103,000 to date although officials here say losses easily reach the $300,000 mark and that some money is needed now to repair the trucks. Wayne Voudren, the village’s chief mechanic and fire-settlement coordinator, said a large grader used for a variety of road and plow work in the village and a Vac-Con sewer-cleaning truck are the major stumbling blocks to a final settlement. Voudren said he is concerned about the status of the village’s grader. The machine picks up snow downtown and is used to plow streets. “It is a key piece of equipment for us in the winter,” said Voudren, who didn’t hide his disappointment with the the insurance company. “They have jerked around and jerked around and we lost three deals (for purchasing another grader).” Meanwhile, the older of two large plow-sanding trucks was sent out for $10,000 in repairs and cleaning but must be sent again because of a lingering, pungent smell of smoke in the cab. “The health of our employees is the main thing,” said Voudren. Repairs for other large equipment damaged in the blaze include $16,000 for a front-end loader, $20,000 for a backhoe, $20,000 for a sidewalks plow and more than $36,000 for the sewer cleaner once a settlement is reached. Riley said the village and Travelers agreed to turn the matter over to an independent appraiser in March to make a final determination on a settlement between the insurance company and Adjusters International, the firm hired by the village to work out an agreement. The village manager voiced severe dissatisfaction with Travelers for failing to make a partial settlement and instead insisting on final bills for items that have yet to be resolved. “We went to arbitration March 7,” said Riley. “They each hired lawyers and still nothing. It is ridiculous. … “On the Vac-Con they are waiting for a final bill which we won’t have for months and months.” In the meantime, construction of the new garage near the site of the old one is scheduled to move forward today when workers begin installing steel support beams. Village Treasurer Mary Peria said the new garage will be built at a cost of about $725,000 – with $450,000 in insurance money and $275,000 in bond revenue. To date, the village has received nearly $594,000 in fire settlements and has paid Adjusters International almost $30,000, or 5 percent, in fees. Figures provided by Peria show the village expects almost $64,000 more in the “near future” as a result of building and contents depreciation, valuable papers lost and additional expenses, such as the rental of space until the new garage is ready. The funding, she said, would pose no problem with the village buget unless an agreement with Travelers is not reached before the fiscal year ends in June. “At the end of the year, unless we get some settlement, we could be in trouble,” said Peria.
Inferno paralyses Central
Michael Ng and Joan Yip, Hong Kong iMail
A SIX-HOUR blaze in a Central leather-goods shop yesterday caused traffic chaos and left two firemen injured. Firefighters had to cut open the main door of Prosperous Building at 48, Des Voeux Road to gain access to the ground-floor shop, where the fire was reported at 7.25am.
Rush-hour traffic was paralysed as the area was cordoned off and dense smoke from burning leather restricted visibility. Traffic jams built up through Central and Admiralty and backed up as far as the Island Eastern Corridor as police closed Des Voeux Road and Pottinger Street, diverting vehicles into Connaught Road. Commuters complained that the trip from Tai Koo Shing to Central took more than an hour. Tram services between Admiralty and Central were also suspended. In a grim reminder of the fatal Garley Building fire in 1996, sparks from welders conducting maintenance work on elevators are suspected to have started the blaze, which was not put out until 1.40pm. Firemen said dense smoke had hampered their work. Roads remained closed until 5pm while clean-up work was completed. A 47-year-old fireman, identified only by his surname, Hui, was in a stable condition in Queen Mary Hospital last night suffering from smoke inhalation. Another fireman, surnamed Chan, 30, was treated for minor back injuries at the same hospital and discharged. Four people were rescued uninjured from the shop. Using four water jets and four breathing-apparatus teams, firefighters brought the blaze under control at 12.30pm and extinguished it completely just over an hour later. “As the burning of leather goods produced a large amount of smoke and affected our work, we had to spend more time to extinguish the blaze,” said Fire Services Central District Divisional officer, Tsang Sing-hong. Firefighters said welding sparks had ignited goods in the shop about 4am. Maintenance workers put the fire out but it flared again later. A commuter giving his name as Mr Chan said a bus ride from Sheung Wan to his office near the fire scene took 40 minutes instead of the usual 10, making him half an hour late for work. A Buildings Department spokeswoman said fire-safety improvement work was being carried out on the 33-year-old building under a notice issued in July 1999. On January 3 this year, about 200 staff and visitors escaped unhurt when a fire broke out on the roof of Melbourne Plaza in the same district. Welding sparks from elevator work caused the Garley Building inferno in Jordan in November 1996 that killed 40 people.
Welding torch sets pipes, paper on fire at Wheeler YMCA
PLAINVILLE — A fire broke out at the Wheeler YMCA early Wednesday after molten steel droppings from a welding torch set PVC pipes and paper on fire in the building’s basement. Officials say the flames were contained to a tunnel around the pool in the basement and no injuries were reported; but because of severe smoke, it took firefighters nearly four hours before the smoke was eliminated from the basement. According to Fire Chief David Laurie, the call came in 7:59 a.m. Fire Marshal Larry Sutherland said welders, who are renovating the YMCA, were using a torch to cut through a tank when a piece of molten steel dropped between a barrel that contains water for filling the pool and the flooring. Sutherland said the fire was extinguished by 8:27 a.m., but firefighters did not return to the department until 11:45 a.m., spending those three hours using ventilation fans to get the smoke out of the basement. “There was very little fire damage,” Laurie said. “The problem is that PVC is a hydrocarbon and burns with very hot, black, acrid smoke.” According to Sutherland, the fire was contained to a tunnel, which is located around the swimming pool. Because of its location, the fire was very hard to reach. By all accounts, it was not a large fire and resulted in very little damage. “The only things damaged were drain pipes and some of the combustible storage,” Sutherland said. Lou Falk, YMCA director, said the fire was identified by one of the contractors who saw smoke and called the authorities. Falk said there were a couple of members and children in the building at the time, but everyone was evacuated without problem. “I’m pleased that our evacuation procedure worked perfect,” Falk said. “Children in child care were moved to the infant and toddler center immediately.” YMCA officials expect to be open today, but child care will be moved to Our Lady of Mercy Parish Center for a few days. Falk does suggest that members call first to assure the facilities will be open.
Routine railroad work sparks fire Blaze burns 80 acres in open field
Tue, Aug 28, 2001, By VICKY CAMPBELL, Standard-Examiner staff
PLAIN CITY – Union Pacific Railroad workers were doing a routine grinding of the rails to smooth the tracks when sparks ignited a fire that ended up burning about 80 acres Monday afternoon. The fire burned in an open field in the area of 10000 W. 950 South and sent jack rabbits scattering, but no one was hurt and no structures were affected, Weber County Sheriff Sgt. J.P. Hansen said. Workers at a nearby Hill Air Force Base research facility left on their own, Hansen said. “It was not required, nor demanded, nor I don”t think ever a necessity,” he said. “They just did that of their own accord.” The fire started at about 3:50 p.m. and was out by about 5:30, he said, with the help of a U.S. Forest Service helicopter and a few of their firefighters along with the Plain City Fire Department. The helicopter had difficulty finding a water source and was only able to dump a couple of hundred gallons of water on the blaze before crews were able to extinguish the fire. Although the Great Salt Lake is very close to the area – Antelope and Fremont islands were visible from the fire – the helicopter couldn”t use the saltwater because it was too heavy. Instead it went looking for a slow-moving, deep river to haul water from. “If it”s too fast it”ll take them with it,” said Hansen. “If it”s too shallow it won”t fill the (100-gallon ) bucket.” A fire at the mouth of Weber Canyon that threatened several homes Aug. 13 was also started by railroad crews grinding rails. Hansen said the machines that grind the rails have dousers at either end of them, but the fires “get away from them” and spread quickly through dry grass and weeds.
Small blaze breaks out at Stauffer
By Times staff writer, © St. Petersburg Times, published August 30, 2001
TARPON SPRINGS — A small fire broke out Saturday morning at the Stauffer Superfund site during demolition of the maintenance building. The site construction manager told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the fire started after sparks from torch cutting on the roof fell into the shop area. The sparks lit some boxes of unused household furnace-type air filters that were stored on a second level over some offices, said Stauffer site manager Frank McNeice. The fire, which lasted less than 10 minutes, was quickly extinguished by on-site workers. There were no injuries. Though the fire resulted in smoke, that smoke dissipated before reaching the property’s border, McNeice said. “There was nothing of concern,” he said. “This was a big nothing.”
Fernandina barge catches fire while being cut into scrap
By Dana Treen, Times-Union staff writer
A potentially hazardous fire aboard a barge that was being cut into salvage in Fernandina Beach yesterday burned and smoldered for about two hours before it was put out by firefighters from several jurisdictions. No one was injured when formaldehyde-containing foam in the 100-ton-capacity barge caught fire while a welder was cutting the beached vessel into scrap, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Mitchell Sutherland. The Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission set up a no-boating zone to prevent boaters from breathing fumes from the 10 a.m. fire. Firefighters from Fernandina Beach, Nassau County and Jacksonville fought the fire in the salvaged barge that had been sitting at an old fertilizer factory site on the north end of Amelia Island at Eagens Creek near the Intracoastal Waterway. Al McGough, manager of the emergency response office for the state Department of Environmental Protection in Jacksonville, said foam like that in the barge was often used to provide floatation in older vessels. A spray that expands as it sets, the foam fills cavities with a material similar to common take-out cups used for hot or cold drinks. Although the burning foam produces toxic fumes, McGough said the fire yesterday did not pose a significant threat. “You’d have to be standing real close to it and breathing it in,” he said. No evacuations were ordered and no injuries were reported, he said. Deputy Chief Chuck Cooper of Nassau County Fire Rescue said firefighters had the fire knocked down in about 30 minutes and extinguished after about two hours. He said the barge was about 55 feet long and 30 feet wide. Investigators with the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office and the state Fire Marshal’s office will conduct investigations into the fire, officials said.
Hospital Office Fire Blamed On Materials; No One Injured In Blaze
Posted: 3:50 p.m. CDT August 27, 2001, Updated: 4:55 p.m. CDT August 27, 2001
TULSA, Okla. – Investigators blamed the combination of cutting torches and treated construction material Monday for igniting a blaze atop a 12-story medical building in Tulsa. The top of the office building under construction at St. John Medical Center caught fire last Wednesday. Tulsa fire investigators deemed the fire accidental. Molten rebar that had been trimmed with a cutting torch fell on plywood forms used in concrete work, they said. The plywood had been treated with oil to keep concrete from sticking to it. No one was injured in the blaze, and no patients in the nearby hospital had to be evacuated.
Blaze near airport injures firefighters; Attempted truck repairs set off Thermo King fire
A large industrial fire broke out Sunday afternoon, rocking the facility with explosions and sending several firefighters to the hospital. The plumes of smoke from the fire at Thermo King of Indiana Inc. were visible for miles. The fire broke out at about 2 p.m. at the 7924 Burch Park Drive business, near Evansville Regional Airport. Thermo King is in the business of heating and cooling systems for trucks and other transportation equipment. The fire started during a mechanic’s attempted repair to a trailer’s refrigeration unit. Mark Reinicke, the mechanic, was treated and released from a local hospital, said McCutchanville Fire Department Assistant Chief Randy Gentry. The five injured firefighters were treated and released. Two were from McCutchanville, one from Scott and two from Knight. The most serious injury, said Gentry, was a McCutchanville firefighter who broke his arm when he fell about 7 feet from the top of a ladder truck. The fire was caused, Gentry said, by heat transfer from the mechanic’s cutting torch to the trailer’s load of shampoo. The tractor-trailer, owned by Dick Simon Trucking Inc. of Mobile, Ala., was brought in by Dudley Campbell and his wife, Connie. “I called ahead and the guy opened up for us,” Connie Campbell said Sunday. “We unhooked the tractor and parked in front of the trailer. I went to sleep. “Next thing I knew, Dudley was yelling, ‘Get up!’ I asked, ‘What’s going on?’ and he said, ‘It’s on fire.’” While she slept, Dudley Campbell said a mechanic he knew only as Mark began working on the trailer’s condenser, which had a leak. “He was welding,” said Dudley Campbell. “Then I heard him yell. He tried to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. “Then he opened the door to get to the fire inside the trailer. When he opened the door, the fire came toward the air. It set the building on fire.” Keith and Debbie Kinney saw the smoke from U. S. 41 and headed over to help. “We were afraid to get too close,” said Keith Kinney. “Things were exploding in the trailer. “The tractor was around back, getting ready to ram the gate so he could get out. I got the keys from the worker and let him out.” Debbie Kinney assisted the mechanic. “He had a pretty bad cut on his finger,” she said. “Mostly he was shaken up.” Don Moffett, chief of the McCutchanville Fire Department and incident commander, beat his trucks to the scene. “I was first on scene,” he said. “The fire was at the rear and around the trailer. By the time the trucks got here, fire was showing above all four overhead doors. “We went with an external attack, using several large-bore hoses. After the explosion, we got everybody back and set up master streams. We call that surround and drown.” There were several explosions, Moffett said, the largest of which was probably caused by a propane tank. The lower half of a propane tank was lying on the ground a few feet in front of the building, and bits of debris were scattered on the lawn of the business across the road. Moffett said the building was badly damaged, especially the north end, which housed four maintenance bays. “We put a tremendous amount of water on the fire,” he said. “We had two ladder trucks and three engines pumping water.” Moffett ordered firefighters out of the building at one point, when a brick wall, which was weakened by fire, water and explosions, began to bow. Firefighters from McCutchanville, Paradise, Scott, Knight and German township fire departments turned out to fight the fire, Moffett said, and the Ohio Township Fire Department from Warrick County provided manpower. “Those firefighters did great,” said Dudley Campbell. Debbie Kinney agreed. “These people are all volunteers,” she said. “It’s just amazing to see them turn out and give their all like this.” The Campbells were scheduled to deliver their cargo to Bristol-Myers Squibb this morning. “Now, we’ll be here until I get all the paperwork wrapped up,” said Dudley Campbell. “Then, I’ll call Mobile, get another load, and get back on the road.”
Two injured in plant explosion
LAKE CITY (AP) — One person is in critical condition and another suffered minor injuries in a chemical explosion at the Nan Ya Plastics plant. Tuesday’s explosion happened as a private contractor was welding on a tank, South Lynches Fire Department Chief Sam Brockington said. The worker was burned on the face, hands and arms. He was thrown against a guard rail and fractured his leg and was cut on the back of his head. The welders were not employees of Nan Ya, but private contractors working through Amps Welding of Lake City, said Adrian Harris, safety, health and environmental director at Nan Ya. The names of the two workers are being withheld until family members have been notified, an Amps Welding worker said. The tank, which is about 10 feet tall and buried in a containment pit, contained ethylene glycol, which caused the explosion and flash fire, Harris said. Brockington said no chemicals were in the tank to sustain the fire and it was out when firefighters arrived.
Smoke from tool draws Morristown firefighters
By Jon Zlock, Daily Record
MORRISTOWN — Fire officials were summoned Wednesday to a fire at the Granite Morristown building, the second construction-related fire call in the vicinity of Washington Street and Cattano Avenue in 10 days. Smoke was reported coming out of the building’s second story, but when firefighters arrived at 10:56 a.m. they found no fire. Officials said a welding tool caused the smoke, which built up in a drainage pipe that had been plugged with newspaper while construction was going on. Fire personnel stayed on the scene for roughly 20 minutes, during which time traffic headed east on Washington Street toward the town Green was rerouted up Cattano Avenue and westbound traffic on Washington was detoured onto Bank Street. Last Monday, the fire department were summoned to the former Macy’s building after demolition workers accidentally ignited debris in the building’s rear loading dock. The flames spread to the third floor of the building before they were extinguished, officials said. A firefighter suffered a minor shoulder injury in the incident. The Granite Morristown project consists of two six-story apartment and retail buildings on Washington Street and Cattano Avenue and a third, nine-story structure attached to the Cattano Avenue building. It is expected to be completed by spring 2002 at the earliest, a representative said Wednesday. The $15 million project has been under construction for a little more than a year. William Walther, president of the New York City-based G. Holdings Corp., Granite’s parent company, said Wednesday the roof of the Cattano building should be complete by next week. That, he said, should alleviate some of the traffic problems caused by material deliveries on Cattano Avenue. “That’ll be good relief for all of us,” Walther said. “We should stop seeing as much traffic as we have today.” Walther said the group hoped to have two model apartments completed by November. The apartment buildings will have 148 residential units, an indoor garden plaza for residents and 7,500 square feet of retail space on the first floors. The 125,000-square-foot project encompasses a half-acre site where the former Morristown Triplex theater and Elks building once stood. The 822-seat theater, vacant since 1986, and former Elks building were sold at auction for $1.85 million in May 1987 to four real estate investors. Rough economic times in the late 1980s and early 1990s stymied development, producing a series of proposals before the current design was approved by the board of adjustment in 1999.
Second fire breaks out in asphalt storage tank
GRANITE CITY — A large asphalt tank erupted into flames Wednesday for the second time in 36 days, closing Illinois Route 3 and forcing police to re-route traffic through residential neighborhoods. Fire departments from throughout the area converged on Apex Oil Co. on Rock Road in the Tri-City Port District after the Granite City Fire Department received a call at 11:50 a.m. Dozens of firefighters from the Granite City and Madison fire departments, U.S. Army Depot and Tosco Refinery responded. The storage tank that caught fire is used to store heated liquid asphalt and is the same storage tank that caught fire July 10. The exact cause of the first fire has yet to be determined. Authorities said Apex Oil crews trying to clean out the charred tank sparked Wednesday’s fire. About 300,000 gallons of asphalt left in the tank from the first fire had hardened in the charred cylinder. The fire started when workmen tried to warm the material so it could be removed. Tosco provided foaming materials to help cool down the tank. In the July blaze, it took 14 hours before foaming material was brought in to put out the flames. On Wednesday, a thick, black cloud of smoke could be seen for miles, and motorists traveling down Route 3 were re-routed through a residential neighborhood of Granite City. Capt. Tim Lyerla of the Granite City Fire Department said power was shut off from West 20th Street to Northgate Industrial Drive on Route 3. The closed stretch of Route 3 was reopened to traffic at 4:45 p.m. Sgt. Ray Takmajian of the Granite City Police Department said no accidents were reported during the traffic tie-ups. However, tractor-trailers traveling along Missouri Avenue found it difficult turning onto connecting streets along the detour. On the corner of 20th Street and Missouri Avenue, two tractor-trailers came to a standstill. A tractor-trailer making a left turn onto Missouri Avenue almost collided with another tractor-trailer approaching a stop sign. “This is the second time around, and we did really good,” Takmajian said. Authorities said no one was injured, and residents were not evacuated. The Long Lake, Glen Carbon and Maryville fire departments also provided mutual aid by covering the stations of the departments involved in fighting the fire.
Surprise fire at ammunition plant keeps firefighters busy
By Gretchen Fowler, [email protected]
A fire Tuesday at the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant injured two Wood River firefighters and kept others busy throughout the afternoon. A controlled burn of many of the buildings in Line 5 was in the plans, Plant Manager Tom Jamieson said, but the fire wasn’t scheduled for today. “Even though we’re going to burn down the rest,” he said, “we’re not ready.” Jamieson said the building that burned was not scheduled for destruction but wasn’t considered much of a loss because it had no resale value. He estimated that the fire began around 1:30 p.m. A worker had been using a torch, went to lunch, and when he came back, the building was on fire.
Five tankers from the Wood River, Cairo, Alda and Grand Island Rural fire departments worked for about an hour and a half before the blaze was under control, Wood River Fire Chief Roger Derr said. He figured crews would be at the scene for the majority of the afternoon and evening.
Montpelier fire causes chaos
By Stephen Mills, TIMES ARGUS STAFF
MONTPELIER – Parts of downtown Montpelier were paralyzed Monday by a house fire that tied up traffic for several hours and attracted scores of curious onlookers. No one was hurt in the fire in an apartment house on Elm Street near the corner of Court Street. The house was owned by James Barrett and was undergoing renovations. According to fire officials and witnesses who spoke to workmen, an acetylene torch being used to heat flashing is believed to have sparked the fire, which began at about 2:30 p.m. “We know that they were renovating the building and that a propane torch was being used to heat stuff, and therefore is a possible cause of the fire,” said Montpelier Deputy Fire Chief Gesualdo Schneider. “As far as we know, the building was unoccupied for renovations. “The roof is burned off, and whether there is enough support in the walls to warrant rebuilding is something an engineer will have to decide,” he added. Early efforts to attack the fire inside the house failed after the roof caught fire. Attempts to run fire hoses from ladder trucks to the building were delayed for more than an hour to allow electricity to be turned off. Schneider said the power had to be disconnected in case the ladder trucks bumped the nearby power lines, risking electric shock to firefighters. “Power is extremely dangerous, not so much because of the water we use, but because of the danger of ladders and other equipment coming into contact with it,” he said. He said firefighters were further hampered by the building’s position against a steep, rocky cliff that prevented them attacking the fire from the other side. Power lines running in front of the building also made it difficult to position equipment in front of the building or on either side of it. For a time, there was some concern that dry brush and trees might cause the fire to spread up the hill to other properties. Dozens of onlookers watched as smoke and flames poured out of the roof, and police redirected traffic away from the area. By early evening, the blaze was out, but fire crews continued to dampen the building to prevent it from re-igniting. “I saw smoke coming out of the house and went to call 911 and told them there was a fire over here,” said nearby resident Diane Flint, who watched from her apartment window. “He (the landlord) was putting all new lumber into the house and was working very hard to fix it up.” “One of the workmen came in and said they were working on the back side of the house putting on flashing with a (propane) torch,” said Demsey McCann of the nearby Deli Mart. “A customer, a meter maid, noticed the smoke and came in, and I called it in. Fire departments from Montpelier, East Montpelier, Berlin and Middlesex were called to fight the blaze.
Three-alarm fire at Seton Shoal Creek Hospital
08/13/2001, KVUE News staff
Thirteen fire trucks were called to Seton Shoal Creek Hospital Monday for a fire on the second floor of the six-story building. Seton Shoal Creek is at 3501 Mills Avenue between Mopac and Lamar Boulevard, south of 38th Street. Their website says the hospital provides behavioral health services in such areas as emotional crisis, depression and drug and alcohol dependence. The patients were evacuated from their rooms while firefighters extinguished a small fire in a second floor wall. The fire was caused accidentally by a plumber’s torch. The building does have smoke detectors and a sprinkler system.
Disco-fire trial begins in China
Defendants face a wide variety of charges
Twenty-three people have gone on trial in central China in connection with a huge fire at a disco last year in which 309 people died. Local officials plus staff at the building face numerous charges, including negligence and abuse of power. The fire happened at a commercial building in Luoyang in Henan province in December. It started in the basement and then thick smoke spread to the disco on the fourth floor. The official media in China said it was one of the worst fires in the country’s recent history and had shocked the nation. Most of the victims suffocated from smoke inhalation. Among those on trial are four welders accused of starting the blaze by igniting piles of rags in the basement. Investigators at the time of the blaze last December said stray sparks from welding set fire to cloth and furniture stored in the basement. They said say one welder had been operating equipment in violation of regulations. The official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Daily, said on Monday the four failed to extinguish the fire, “took to their heels from the scene” and made a pact to keep silent. Local safety inspectors are also accused of negligence. Lax fire safety standards lead to thousands of deaths in China each year. The Luoyang dance hall had only two emergency exits, one hidden behind the bar. There were no sprinklers or smoke alarms. Immediately after December’s fire, the government ordered the closure of dance halls and recreation centres which had inadequate safety equipment. It also called for checks for potential fire hazards in other public buildings, including hospitals and schools. The nightclub fire was China’s worst such disaster since December 1994, when 324 people, mostly children, were killed in a concert hall in Xinjiang.
Gun shop explosion injures owner, blows out building wall
BULLHEAD CITY – The owner of a gun shop was injured as a result of an explosion Wednesday afternoon. Wes Griffin, owner of the shop in the 2700 block of Camino Del Rio, received burns to his arms, wrists and face as well as singed hair after a spark from the metal he was grinding caused a nearby can of shotgun powder to explode, according to fire department Battalion Chief Jon Barrett. Griffin was transported to Western Arizona Regional Medical Center (WARMC) by fire department personnel as a precaution after he breathed in smoke from the explosion and flash fire. According to Barrett, paramedics were concerned about Griffin having possible respiratory problems from the chemical filled smoke. The explosion caused a flash fire inside the building and then blew out the side of the gun shop. Following the explosion, city of Bullhead City Building inspectors were called in to assess the damage, and personnel from Mohave Electric Cooperative and Southwest Gas were called to turn off their respective utilities. According to Larry Tunforss, Bullhead City Fire Department public information officer, the explosion is still under investigation by the fire investigators from the Bullhead City Fire Department. “Griffin is being held over at the hospital for observation and treatment of first and second degree burns,” added Tunforss.
Fire at CIA does more than $1 million in damage
The Associated Press; 8/8/01 9:03 PM
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A fire at CIA headquarters Tuesday caused more than $1 million in damage, authorities said. Investigators from the Fairfax County Fire Department determined the fire began after slag, melted by a welder’s torch, fell onto some wooden shelves in a utility room on the fifth floor of the older headquarters building on the closed CIA campus outside of Washington. The building, and the nearby new headquarters building, were evacuated after fire alarms sounded around 5:50 p.m. EDT Tuesday. During the fire, CIA uniformed security officers escorted the local firefighters through the building. Ten of those officers were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene. Two more CIA employees were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and later released. Some CIA employees were given Wednesday off because of the heavy smoke in the building, but all are expected back at work Thursday. A CIA spokesman, Mark Mansfield, said the fire didn’t reach any sensitive areas in the building. The spokesman said that regular agency briefings to policy-makers were conducted on schedule Wednesday.
No injuries reported in rock crusher fire at Mission Mine yesterday
LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNES, Citizen Staff Writer, Aug. 8, 2001
Welding sparks set a rock crusher on fire at the Mission Mine south of Tucson, but the fire was quickly extinguished. The fire at the ASARCO copper mine, 4201 W. Pima Mine Road, started at 4:45 p.m. yesterday and burned rubber, hydraulic lines and other parts of the rock crusher, said District Chief George Good, a Rural/Metro Fire Department spokesman. “We’d been there before, eight months ago, for the same problem,” Good said of the site about 20 miles south of Tucson. “I think it’s the type of thing which is common to mine operations,” he said. No one was injured, he said. “The fire was contained, and the crews at the mine also have some fire training and are helpful in that type of situation,” Good said. “I don’t know how many and I’m not sure who did what.” He said 12 Rural-Metro firefighters responded to the fire, which was confined to the crushing machine. He did not have a damage estimate.
Closed Plant Blast Kills 4 in Russia
By Associated Press
MOSCOW — Four workers were killed at an explosion at a closed defense plant in Siberia, emergency officials said Tuesday. The explosion occurred Monday at the Konversia-M plant near the town of Krutaya Gorka in the Omsk region, about 1,400 miles east of Moscow, said Viktor Verblyudov, a spokesman for the regional emergency department. Two people were wounded, one seriously, he said. The explosion apparently occurred when a welding spark caused a canister of oxygen to explode, Verblyudov said, adding that a special commission was investigating. It was unclear what the plant was producing. NTV television reported that the section of the factory where the explosion occurred was under the management of the Russian space and aviation agency, Rosaviakosmos.
UPDATE, Welding Sparks Cause Seattle Ship Fire
By AP Staff
Fire aboard a 200-foot ship yesterday in Seattle was caused by sparks from a welding operation that ignited diesel fuel. That’s the word from fire investigators who checked the Ocean Pride this morning. The fish processing vessel is docked in the Lake Washington Ship Canal near Ballard in Seattle. Damage is estimated at more than $3 million dollars. Seattle fire officials said it appears the ship can be repaired. Firefighters were there overnight on fire watch but they have all left the scene now.
Six Seattle firefighters hurt battling ship fire
Seattle-AP — Six firefighters have been injured battling a ship fire in a Seattle canal. Three of them suffered steam burns while battling the fire aboard the fish processing ship “Ocean Pride.” Two others had heat exhaustion, and one was treated after inhaling smoke from the fire. Authorities estimate the fire caused a (m) million dollars in damage. Coast Guard officials say crew members on the ship were working with a torch when the fire broke out Saturday morning. The ship canal was closed for several hours as the fire sent toxic smoke shooting into the air.
Officials: Solder gun started Voorhees fire
By STEVE LEVINE, Courier-Post Staff, VOORHEES
A fire that destroyed five homes here started when a resident’s friend ignited insulation with a solder gun while installing a pedestal sink, fire officials said Wednesday. The blaze spread through a three-story building at the Mews at Echelon Tuesday after the resident, Michelle McKeever, and her friend, whose name was not released, tried to fight the flames themselves, said Deputy Camden County Fire Marshal Jay Houck. “At first they thought they got it out. It went from the first floor up through the wall and extended into the attic,” Houck said. He said McKeever’s friend is not a contractor. Firefighters arrived about 8:20 p.m. to find smoke and flames billowing through the roof of the three-story building. No injuries were reported in the two-alarm blaze near the Echelon Mall. But all five units were heavily damaged, their yards filled with sooty black water and the air around them reeking of smoke Wednesday. McKeever refused to comment but some of her neighbors said they had not insured the contents of their homes. Dara Nachimson, 28, said she fled the fire with just her handbag and a necklace owned by her grandmother, who died last month. “There are pictures and letters from her I’m hoping will be OK,” she said. “I’m a renter and I don’t have renter’s insurance,” said Nachimson. The Red Cross fund-raiser said she should have known better. “We hear about fires and people not having renter’s insurance but you never think it will happen to you,” she said. Jason Cohen said he and his wife, Michelle, did not insure the contents of their home. He estimated a loss of about $ 10,000. “I honestly don’t know what we’ll do,” said Cohen. Condo association fees pay for insurance on the structure. Property manager Karen Merlino said residents should carry contents coverage on their own. “It’s stated in their bylaws to get insurance,” she said. ” It’s the same as if they own their own home.”
Fire starts in pile of discarded tires
Publication Date: 8/1/01, By KATHERINE BELCHER, Staff Writer
PARKSVILLE — Firefighters from the Boyle County Fire Department were kept busy most of Tuesday afternoon after a fire started in a pile of discarded tires at a salvage yard. The fire broke out at 11 a.m. at Coulter Tractor Salvage at 7075 Lebanon Road. Firefighters responded when workers tried unsuccessfully to put the fire out themselves. Co-owner of the business Rolan Coulter said he and other employees used water hoses and extinguishers on the fire, but the flames got too big, too fast. Simon Gilpin, of Parksville, is a mechanic at the salvage yard and had been working with a cutting torch before the fire started. “I was cutting a piece of metal with a blow torch and didn’t think nothing about it,” Gilpin said. “The next think I know there was smoke and then flames.”
Three fire engines and two tankers responded to the scene. Perryville Fire Chief Woody Ball said the fire would have to burn itself out as they could only try to contain it. “Water is not effective on this kind of fire. We could use foam, but combined with petroleum based products, the mixture would create an environmental problem.” Ball said. “In a case like this we will just create a ‘dig around’ the base of the fire to contain it.” Ball went on to explain that this includes digging a trench around the perimeter of the fire to keep it from spreading. The only building close to the fire was an empty storage unit. Fire personnel remained on the scene until the fire smoldered out at around 5 p.m.
No damage in Holiday Inn fire
By NATE REENS, Staff writer
A small fire in a lobby wall of the Holiday Inn Express in Holland Township forced the evacuation of 11 guest rooms on Tuesday, the hotel manager said. Chris Taylor said he has yet to estimate the amount of damage sustained in the 10:30 a.m. fire, but that it wasn’t severe enough to close the hotel, which opened Thursday at 12381 Felch St. Glenn Veldheer, Holland Township assistant fire chief, said the fire, caused when a copper pipe being soldered by a plumber overheated, was contained to the wall between the first and second floors. “There was no evidence of damage to the second floor,” Veldheer said. “They’ve got a little smoke in the building, but we’ve pretty much ventilated it out already.” Veldheer said the hotel will have to seal the wall, but that there weren’t extensive losses attributed to the fire. Taylor said the damage was minimized because the hotel’s fire protection system worked “exactly as it’s supposed to.” “These buildings are very safe and they’re fire sealed,” he said. Tom Clouser, a guest who was evacuated from the hotel, said he and his wife, Jackie, and their two children were “up and around the hotel” when they smelled smoke. “I was in the lobby getting coffee and could smell smoke, but it wasn’t billowing out or anything,” Clouser, an Ohio resident, said outside the hotel. “It just smelled like an electrical fire.” Jackie Clouser said she was told to leave the hotel while her two girls, Amber and Emily, were in the room packing. “I said my kids were in the room and I had to go get them,” Jackie Clouser said while watching firefighters air out the lobby. “I told them to drop their gear and get out.”
Investigators Identify Cause Of City Hall Fire
Fire investigators have identified the cause the a fire at City Hall in Winston-Salem.
Investigators said that construction crews were using a blow torch to cut through some metal causing some sparks to drop into a pile of trash. The fire began around 9:30 p.m. Monday. It smoldered for several hours. The building suffered $30,000 worth of damage.
Blaze ravages Victorian: Renovation work a likely cause
By Dave Waddell, Bee Staff Writer , (Published July 28, 2001)
A torch used to remove old paint may have ignited a fast-moving blaze that badly burned a 113-year-old, two-story Victorian home near 22nd and N streets Friday. No one was injured. The house at 2213 N St. was unoccupied, but workers were preparing the structure for exterior painting when the fire broke out on an upper-story landing about 10:45 a.m. Flames shot through the attic, and heat from the fire could be felt by scores of onlookers across N Street. A plume of dark smoke billowed skyward and could be seen at least 10 miles away. The fire jumped to the roof of the adjoining residence at 2215 N St., but firefighters extinguished it without extensive damage. Capt. Dave Whitt, public information officer for the Sacramento Fire Department, said the cause of the blaze is “undetermined, but we cannot rule out the use of a torch for paint removal.” Damage was estimated at $100,000, and the structure was uninsured, Whitt said. The house’s old wood and “balloon construction” — meaning no fire break between the floors — allowed the flames to advance quickly, Whitt said. The home is owned by Mike Carroll, who said he was among those working on the renovation. Carroll said he’s owned the house since 1973 and that it has been unoccupied and without power for seven years. Bernard Jones, who was working with Carroll when the fire started, called the blaze “heartbreaking.” “We were just trying to fix the thing up,” Jones said. “We were just trying to get it right.”
Fire damages Zimbabwe’s top tourist hotel
Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe — A fire today raged through Zimbabwe’s top tourist and casino hotel, famed for its gigantic thatched roof, within sight of the landmark Victoria Falls. Damage was extensive but there were no injuries. Witnesses said about 60 percent of the 275-room luxury Elephant Hills hotel was destroyed by today’s fire. The Zimbabwe Sun Hotels group released a statement calling damage “considerable.” “As soon as the fire broke out, all guests were safely transferred” to other hotels, the statement said. The hotel boasts one of Africa’s biggest straw thatch roofs. It was built for $55 million as an ethnic African showcase for heads of government attending a 1991 summit of the Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies. The fire began in the laundry section of the hotel where repair work with welding equipment was under way, the statement said. Firefighters were called from neighboring Zambia and the airport at the Hwange wild life preserve, 55 miles to the south. The hotel — seen as a mainstay of Zimbabwe’s ailing tourist industry — is jointly owned by Zimbabwe Sun Hotels and the world InterContinental hotel group. The site overlooks the soaring spray of the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi river, the world’s widest curtain of falling water. The hotel’s private golf course was designed by Gary Player. The hotel was rebuilt for the 1991 Commonwealth summit on the ruins of a smaller thatched hotel that burnt down in 1977 after being hit by guerrilla rockets in the bush war that led in 1980 to the end of white rule in Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known before independence. The actors Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton concluded their honeymoon there after a trip to neighboring Botswana in the 1970s. The statement did not say how many guests were in the hotel at the time of the fire.
UPDATE, Two minor leaks discovered in Delaware City refinery
As cleanup goes on, mayor asks for better alert system
By ESTEBAN PARRA and BETH MILLER, Staff reporters, 07/22/2001
DELAWARE CITY — As crews continued Saturday to secure a dike around the site of Tuesday’s Motiva Enterprises refinery fire, new sulfuric acid leaks — said to be minor — were found in two storage tanks damaged in the accident, Motiva officials said. At the same time, Delaware City Mayor Cordelia “Dee” Bennett expressed concern about the promptness of community alerts Tuesday and called for the development of a better system of notifying neighbors about accidents. Emergency response officials activated a reverse-911 system shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday, intending to contact 6,000 residents in southern New Castle County. The alert was called off at 5:30 p.m., and fewer than 900 homes had been reached. “In this case, they used reverse 911, but it’s not complete,” Bennett said. “It shouldn’t happen again.” Speaking at the Delaware City Days celebration Saturday, Bennett said she wants the problem of delayed community alerts resolved before another incident occurs. Spiros Mantzavinos, a Motiva spokesman, said Saturday the company would work with a local emergency planning council to develop a better system to notify neighbors of emergencies. Motiva officials said Saturday they found small leaks from valves on two of four tanks still containing sulfuric acid. Both contain about 328,000 gallons of sulfuric acid. Motiva said Saturday that valves on two tanks are dripping sulfuric acid at a rate of about a half-gallon an hour. The leaks were noticed Saturday morning by inspectors suspended in an aerial basket above the containment area, which is bounded by a wall four feet tall. “It is not a major leak at this point,” said Vance Evans, a spokesman with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Evans said one of the newly discovered leaks is coming from the most visibly damaged tank, which contains fresh sulfuric acid at almost full strength. The other leak is from an adjacent tank holding spent sulfuric acid, which is at about 90 percent of full strength. In Tuesday’s accident, one of the six original tanks collapsed and spilled about 263,000 gallons of spent sulfuric acid. A second tank was found Friday to also have leaked all of its contents, estimated at another 263,000 gallons. Sulfuric acid is an irritant to the skin, eyes, nose and throat. At high levels of exposure, it can dissolve flesh. Motiva uses it in the petroleum refining operations and at its waste-water treatment plant. Motiva officials said they have detected no unsafe levels of sulfur dioxide in the air outside the refinery’s perimeter. Workers are continuing to apply neutralizing soda to the fire site, but still are unable to get near the tanks for a closer inspection because of unsafe levels of sulfuric acid vapors. The vapors also continued to prevent a search within the containment area for a missing worker, identified Friday by family members as Jeffrey Davis of Fairless Hills, Pa. Davis, a member of a five-person crew from Washington Group International, was working on a catwalk connecting the cluster of six tanks at the time of Tuesday’s accident. Eight people were injured in the Tuesday fire and acid spill, and were treated at Christiana Hospital for respiratory distress from breathing sulfuric acid mists. Seven have been released from the hospital. The eighth worker, Steven Spera, 44, of New Castle, was in stable condition Saturday night. The spill sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of sulfuric acid, firefighting water and neutralizing agents into sewers, drainage pipes and streams. Some of the corrosive mix made it into the Delaware River, killing more than 2,500 fish and 245 blue crabs, officials said. The state Fire Marshal’s Office has not been able to get close enough to the tanks to investigate what caused the fire. Dangerous vapors around the sulfuric acid tanks have made it unsafe for workers to enter. Searchers have been using a grid pattern outside the containment barrier to look for Davis. Workers Saturday continued to seal the dike around the tank farm, build additional earthen berms and work pumps and vacuum systems. Once the area is considered safe for workers to enter, the search for Davis will continue, as well as the investigation of what caused the fire. In addition, workers eventually will remove the acid in the remaining four tanks, although the method has not been determined. Motiva also said Saturday that most of the 12 million gallons of corrosive runoff from the spill stored in tanks near the waste-water treatment plant has been processed through the plant. Eight million gallons of runoff and normal plant waste water have been treated and the remaining 4 million gallons are now being processed. Motiva officials measured a pH of 7 on Saturday at the end of the pipe that empties treated waste water into the Delaware River. Water has a pH of about 7 and sulfuric acid usually has a pH of less than 1. Getting the stored runoff processed was a priority Wednesday and Thursday because of concerns about whether the storage tanks were capable of handling the corrosive runoff. Those concerns eased when it was learned the three tanks are lined with cold tar epoxy, which officials said would prevent deterioration of the tank walls. Many of the firefighters who fought the fire and worked for days to neutralize the tank farm spent Saturday morning back in the community at Delaware City’s annual festival. Organizers said they had been concerned that the accident would keep people away from the parade and celebration. But Bennett, the mayor, said she saw no evidence the crowd was thinner than in previous years as she surveyed Clinton Street after the morning parade. She criticized the way community officials and residents were advised of the accident and said she hopes a local emergency-response council will improve notification policies. Delaware City, its fire company and many of the chemical companies along Del. 9 have formed the council to plan for such accidents. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who was grand marshal of the town’s parade, praised the community’s response to the accident and said she thought the response of state agencies also was appropriate. Some town residents at the parade said they were upset Saturday that they had not been notified of the incident Tuesday. Bennett and other town officials said they did not learn of the situation until they called the refinery to find out what was happening. Leann Blackiston, who lives on Washington Street, said she was home all afternoon Tuesday and never received a warning call or knock on her door. “I think they should have told us,” she said. “It’s only a mile away.” Carolyn Miller, 69, a lifelong resident of Delaware City, said she was surprised she was not notified. But she said she figured she would have heard if she had been in danger. “They knew we weren’t in danger or they would have let us know,” she said. “We must not have been in any immediate danger.”
UPDATE, Leak drains acid tank after Delaware City accident
Worker still missing; river safe, officials say
By BETH MILLER, Staff reporter, 07/21/2001
DELAWARE CITY — All the sulfuric acid has leaked out of one of the five tanks left standing after Tuesday’s fire and acid spill at Motiva Enterprises refinery, company officials said Friday. And efforts to find the missing worker — identified by family members as Jeffrey Davis of Fairless Hills, Pa. — were hindered again by continuing pockets of dangerous vapors at the fire scene. Motiva officials estimated about 263,000 gallons of spent sulfuric acid had leaked from the second tank into the containment area around the small tank farm, enclosed by a wall four feet tall. They said acid levels in the other four tanks have not dropped, but one of them is visibly damaged. Some of the leaking acid had reached the Delaware River earlier in the week, killing more than 2,500 fish and 245 blue crabs, officials said. No further fish kills were discovered in the area Friday. The U.S. Coast Guard believes a variety of containment measures — some pre-existing and some put in place since the fire — mean the river is out of immediate jeopardy, according to Chief Petty Officer Carolyn Cihelka. And Motiva officials said Friday they think the containment area around the tanks no longer is leaking into the plant’s wastewater system. The Coast Guard had raised concerns Wednesday about the safety of holding 12 million gallons of corrosive runoff from the fire and spill in three tanks near Motiva’s wastewater-treatment plant on the Delaware River. With waterway concerns largely resolved, the Coast Guard Friday handed its federal oversight role to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has three main concerns, according to Vance Evans, community-involvement coordinator. They are that the remaining acid be placed in a secure area; that Motiva continue to operate its wastewater-treatment plant in an acceptable manner; and that long-term cleanup efforts be done properly. Dangerous vapors around the sulfuric-acid tanks made it unsafe for workers to enter the area Friday to search for Davis, 50, a boilermaker employed by Washington Group International. But searchers used a grid pattern outside the containment barrier Friday to look for Davis, who was part of a five-person team working Tuesday on catwalks connecting the six tanks. Eight people were treated at Christiana Hospital for respiratory injuries after the fire Tuesday. All have been released except for Steven Spera, 44, of New Castle. A hospital official said Friday that Spera was in good condition. Motiva officials have said they have detected no unsafe levels of sulfur dioxide in the air outside the refinery’s perimeter, but significant air-quality concerns remain on the refinery property. “Hot zones” — where unsafe levels of sulfur dioxide are detected — have prevented a search of the fire area in the tank farm. The vapors also prevent a careful analysis of the integrity of the five tanks that survived the fire, and removal of the remaining acid in them. The hot zones have prevented Assistant State Fire Marshal Willard F. Preston III and his staff from determining the cause of Tuesday’s blaze. Preston said Friday he and his staff have interviewed Motiva workers and reviewed photographs of the scene but have reached no conclusions. “We have to match up what we learn in interviews with physical evidence at the scene,” Preston said. He did not know when it would be safe for investigators to enter the area. “At this point, the safety of the staff is utmost,” he said. “The evidence is going to stay the same. It’s secured.” When the fire started Tuesday, six 32-foot-high carbon steel tanks containing sulfuric acid were in the tank farm. One caught fire, collapsed and spilled its contents — now estimated at 263,000 gallons of sulfuric acid. Motiva officials said Friday a tank next to the one that collapsed Tuesday now is empty. A third tank shows visible signs of damage, but officials said they do not know the extent of it. Both tanks that lost their contents held spent sulfuric acid at about 90 percent strength. Two of the remaining four tanks hold spent acid and two hold fresh, 98 percent-strength sulfuric acid, Motiva officials said. Work at the fire site now focuses on sealing the 4-foot-high dike around the tank farm, building additional earthen berms, putting pumping and vacuum systems in the vicinity of the tank farm and continuing to monitor the tank walls and levels. Once the area around the tank fire is considered safe for workers to enter, the search for Davis will continue. In addition, workers eventually will remove the acid in the remaining four tanks. Sulfuric acid is an irritant to the skin, eyes, nose and throat. At high levels of exposure, it can burn tissue. Motiva uses it in the petroleum refining operations and at its wastewater-treatment plant. About three-quarters of a mile away from the fire site at the tank farm, Motiva’s wastewater-treatment plant continues to process corrosive runoff stored since Tuesday. The three holding tanks are sending material into the plant for processing, officials said. Eight million gallons of runoff and normal plant wastewater were treated there Thursday. At the end of the pipe that empties treated wastewater into the Delaware River, Coast Guard officials measured a pH of 6.6 on Friday. Water has a pH of about 7. Sulfuric acid usually has a pH of less than 1. The pH level inside the tanks at the treatment plant has been a concern because those tanks were not designed to hold high concentrations of sulfuric acid. The pH in the smallest of the three tanks was measured at between 1 and 3 Thursday, according to Maria Taylor of the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. All three tanks are lined with cold tar epoxy, which officials think has prevented deterioration of the tank walls.
Roofers’ blowtorch may have triggered bumper business blaze
PAWTUCKET — Salesman Ed Badessa was driving to his workplace, J & J Bumper, Inc., Thursday evening when he saw fire trucks speeding by him heading to the same 10 Dunnell Lane warehouse. “I had no clue what was going on,” said Badessa, who sells reconditioned bumpers to auto mechanics. He later learned a fire had started on the roof of the business after a roofing company had been working there all day. Fire Battalion Chief Michael Carter said an initial investigation showed that sections of the wood that roofers were covering may have smoldered when they blowtorched the plastic-like shingles. He would not confirm the cause of the fire until fire marshals finish an investigation. The smoke triggered a box alarm alerting the Fire Department and a sprinkler system that saved the rest of the building. “The sprinkler knocked it down enough so we could easily keep it in check,” Carter said, noting the sprinkler eased concerns that the metal and fiberglass bumpers in the building would ignite. There were several workers in the building, who were evacuated once they smelled the smoke, said John Candido, one of those workers. Firefighters quickly doused the wood roof, making sure the fire did not spread to spots the sprinklers didn’t reach. A ladder truck, five engines and a command vehicle quickly responded to the 5 p.m. alarm and had the fire under control within 10 minutes, he said. It only took another 15 minutes to make sure nothing else was smoldering and for firefighters to begin packing hoses. Carter was able to rotate the engine trucks to use the water from each pumper, considering the nearest hydrant was a quarter-mile up the road. If the fire had spread, he would have had to connect hoses that length, however. “If they didn’t have the sprinklers, it could have gotten out of control,” Carter said. The owners of the business, John Pinheiro and Jack Candinho, were on site and said they would review insurance details today. The roofing company was ABC Commercial Roofing of Cambridge, Mass.
Roofers’ blowtorch may have triggered bumper business blaze
PAWTUCKET — Salesman Ed Badessa was driving to his workplace, J & J Bumper, Inc., Thursday evening when he saw fire trucks speeding by him heading to the same 10 Dunnell Lane warehouse. “I had no clue what was going on,” said Badessa, who sells reconditioned bumpers to auto mechanics. He later learned a fire had started on the roof of the business after a roofing company had been working there all day. Fire Battalion Chief Michael Carter said an initial investigation showed that sections of the wood that roofers were covering may have smoldered when they blowtorched the plastic-like shingles. He would not confirm the cause of the fire until fire marshals finish an investigation. The smoke triggered a box alarm alerting the Fire Department and a sprinkler system that saved the rest of the building. “The sprinkler knocked it down enough so we could easily keep it in check,” Carter said, noting the sprinkler eased concerns that the metal and fiberglass bumpers in the building would ignite. There were several workers in the building, who were evacuated once they smelled the smoke, said John Candido, one of those workers. Firefighters quickly doused the wood roof, making sure the fire did not spread to spots the sprinklers didn’t reach. A ladder truck, five engines and a command vehicle quickly responded to the 5 p.m. alarm and had the fire under control within 10 minutes, he said. It only took another 15 minutes to make sure nothing else was smoldering and for firefighters to begin packing hoses. Carter was able to rotate the engine trucks to use the water from each pumper, considering the nearest hydrant was a quarter-mile up the road. If the fire had spread, he would have had to connect hoses that length, however. “If they didn’t have the sprinklers, it could have gotten out of control,” Carter said. The owners of the business, John Pinheiro and Jack Candinho, were on site and said they would review insurance details today. The roofing company was ABC Commercial Roofing of Cambridge, Mass.
Frazee man electrocuted while working on car
Associated Press, Thursday, July 19, 2001
FRAZEE — A Frazee man was electrocuted while welding in his garage. Authorities say that 24-year-old Scott Schermerhorn was electrocuted last night when he grabbed the car with his free hand as he welded underneath the vehicle. Schermerhorn’s wife discovered him in the garage, unconscious and not breathing. He was transported to St. Mary’s in Detroit Lakes, where he was pronounced dead. Doctors concluded that electrocution was the cause of death.
Welding probably caused Valley fire
A Tuesday night warehouse fire in the Spokane Valley was probably sparked by welding work, fire officials said. The fire started when sparks from welding ignited sawdust piles inside Quality Jobbers, a sawdust-hauling business at Flora and Euclid. It appears to be accidental, said Kevin Miller, an investigator for the Spokane Valley Fire Department.
Three welders injured as pipe ignites, burns through insulation
By TRICIA SCHWENNESEN, The Register-Guard
SPRINGFIELD – Three men were taken to the hospital and a child care center was among several businesses evacuated Monday morning after a maintenance mechanic apparently ignited a fire at a glue manufacturing plant. The mechanic and three contractors had been working to repair an exterior, leaky fume-filled pipe shortly after 9 a.m. at the Dynea USA Inc. building – formerly Neste Resins Corporation – at 475 28th St. Sparks from a plasma cutter, a tool used to cut metal, caused the fire inside the pipe, which then warmed up and burned through to the outer insulation, plant manager Bill Langley said. No one was injured and the plant was not operating at the time of the fire, he said. While workers flooded the 12-inch-diameter pipeline with water to prevent any smoldering embers from igniting, plant officials called 911 and evacuated about 100 employees. Three welders, whose names were not released, were taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center, treated for minor smoke inhalation and released, Langley said. “Our main concern is for the community and our employees,” Langley said. “We kept a few (employees) around and evacuated at the advice of the fire department.” The plant manufactures a synthetic resin, or glue, used to make particle board for the housing industry, he said. Neither the fumes nor the finished product – piped into about 25 silo-like structures on the property – are toxic or flammable. “It will burn, but it’s not flammable, like explosive, like gasoline would do,” Langley said. “We haven’t identified anything dangerous (released into the air). There are no environmental, no community implications.” Down wind from the plant, nearly 50 children and a dozen child care providers were evacuated from a Goodwill Industries day care center at 204 30th St., and bused to nearby Maple Elementary School until their parents could be notified, Springfield police Sgt. Dick Jones said. Dozens of employees from several other buildings, including the state Department of Fish & Wildlife, and a Goodwill retail store and work program were also asked to leave the area, he said. “The biggest problem was there was a day care or a preschool type thing and we got them out,” Jones said. A Goodwill spokesman said the company relied on an emergency plan to move the children out as quickly as possible. “We were contacted by the police and working with the City of Springfield and the school district – we loaded the kids on the bus and took them to Maple,” David Bartlett said. “Everything turned out fine. Crisis planning pays off.” Tim Gribble, president of Preferred Construction Inc., located across 28th Street, said from his store front he first saw a fire engine, then two more followed by an ambulance. “I just assumed they had an industrial accident but I couldn’t see any smoke or flames,” he said. “Then they closed off the street and I knew that it was bigger than I thought.” The police also warned Gribble that he, too, could be evacuated. “I wasn’t concerned ,” he said. “I didn’t see anything dooming.” Deputy Fire Marshal Paul Gerard said the fire was immediately extinguished but firefighters and hazardous materials investigators wanted to make sure there were no embers or hot spots inside the pipeline. The crew then used heat sensitive equipment to determine the pipeline was cold. Employees were allowed to return to the plant by about 2 p.m., and it was fully operational by about 7 p.m., Langley said.
Bad weld linked to gas spill at lake
March 2000 leak contaminated Dallas water source with MTBE
07/17/2001, By Terri Langford / The Dallas Morning News
About 564,000 gallons of MTBE-laced gasoline that spilled last year – some of it contaminating Lake Tawakoni – can be linked to a faulty weld along the seam of a 30-year-old pipeline, according to a government report released Monday. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates pipeline accidents, found that the March 2000 spill near Greenville was traced to a crack measuring 501/2 inches long by 63/4 inches wide. The city of Dallas uses water from Lake Tawakoni, and the spill threatened 25 percent of the area’s water supply. Initially, high levels of methyl tertiary butyl ether – or MTBE – were found at Lake Tawakoni, forcing city water officials to turn off pumps at the lake. Five months later, after most of the chemical had evaporated, the pumps were switched back on. City officials said late last year that costs related to the cleanup were about $13 million. The city has filed a lawsuit against Explorer Pipeline Co., the owner of the pipeline, in which unspecified damages are sought. The suit has yet to go to trial. The report indicates that the break occurred late March 9, not early March 10 as originally reported. Gasoline poured into Caddo Creek, which feeds Lake Tawakoni. A thunderstorm exacerbated the problem when it flushed the contamination 24 miles downstream into the lake. Cracks found near the tear were typical of a weld defect, the board concluded. The 28-inch diameter pipe, buried 41/2 feet below ranchland, was made in 1970 by the Steel Co. of Canada. Officials with Steel Co. could not be located late Monday. “The probable cause of the pipeline failure was corrosion-fatigue cracking that initiated at the edge of the longitudinal seam weld at a likely pre-existing weld defect,” the report stated. “Contributing to the failure was the loss of pipe coating integrity.” The pipeline’s owner – Explorer Pipeline Co. of Tulsa, Okla. – did not dispute the board’s conclusions. “We essentially agree with the findings,” said Rod Sands, Explorer’s vice president and chief operating officer. “We think the report was thorough. … We feel like it’s an accurate report.” Dallas city officials, notified late Monday of the ruling, were withholding comment. “We’d like to have a chance to review the ruling, analyze it, before we can comment on it,” said Tom Perkins, first assistant city attorney. The safety board is not a regulatory agency. Instead, it makes safety recommendations. There were no recommendations in the report, but the board noted Explorer’s post-spill efforts. The company tested most of the line for leaks before restarting it. On Dec. 15, 2000, Explorer was granted permission to return pipeline operation to the operating pressures that had been in effect before the accident. Cleanup nearly done More than a year after the spill, 90,000 cubic yards of dirt has been hauled from the contaminated site, treated and transported back to the area. The cleanup will be completed in the fall, an official said. “We’re about 80 percent complete,” Mr. Sands said. Some of the world’s largest fuel providers own shares in Explorer, which transports oil, jet fuel and gas through its 1,400-mile pipeline from Louisiana to Indiana.
LVFD assists with grass fire
Jul 13 2001 12:00AM By Aaron S. Lee Staff Writer
A call came in on Thursday at 11 a.m. to the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department regarding a grass fire east of town on Highway 26 near Dinklage Feed Yards. Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad workers, while trying to repair a section of the track by using a grinding machine, created sparks that ignited the extremely dry grass that bordered the tracks just a few feet away. According to County Fire Warden Dave Stoeger, the firefighters fought and contained the blaze for the remainder of the afternoon until extinguishing the fire, about eight hours. “Two other calls came in from Yoder and Fort Laramie about that same time,” he said. “We never found those reported fires so we believed the residents were smelling the grass fire in Torrington.” Roughly two miles of grass was burned, according to Torrington Fire chief Dennis Estes. It took 40 people to fight the fire, using Torrington, Lingle and Lyman, Neb., firefighters. Estes said problems stemmed from motorists passing parked emergency vehicles. A new law that was passed July 1, known as the “Move Over” law, requires drivers traveling in the same direction as an emergency vehicle parked along the roadway to slow 20 mph or less than the posted speed limit on two-lane roads. “They need to be careful, because there were people flying through the smoke – they didn’t even know if there was a firetruck on the other side,” Estes said. “It’s pretty tough for us because we’ve got to watch for flames, then we’ve got to watch for cars flying down the road. They need to take some consideration.” Estes urges residents to keep the weeds down around their homes for safety reasons. “They can’t put the fire down once it starts,” he said. “In the last two fires there were people right there when it started, and they couldn’t put the fire out with water. That’s how dry it is.”
Fire rips through new subdivision; Five homes razed; sixth home damaged
By SCOTT VANHORNE/Staff Writer
VICTORVILLE – Five homes burned to the ground and a sixth sustained major damage Wednesday afternoon after a blaze ripped through a row of houses under construction in a new subdivision. “This is the largest loss of single family homes under construction in Victorville history,” Victorville Fire Department Investigator Greg Coon said. The fire started about 2 p.m. inside a home on Brianhead Court near Cobalt Road. A plumber welding a damaged pipe apparently sparked the fire, but he didn’t realize it until another worker saw smoke coming from inside the home, Victorville Fire Department Investigator Kim Dhaemers said. The two went back in with a fire extinguisher to extinguish the rapidly spreading fire, but they weren’t able to stop it, she said. “By the time they noticed the smoke, it was huge,” said 19-year-old Eric Musser of Hesperia, who was working on the houses when the blaze started. The home where the fire started was in a row of seven homes under construction in a subdivision called Cobalt Country Estates. Drywall hadn’t been placed inside the homes, and stucco paper on the outside was still exposed. Stucco paper is soaked in oil, which causes it to ignite easily. “Had they been insulated and drywalled, we wouldn’t have had this,” Dhaemers said. The fire jumped from house to house as construction workers tried desperately to gather their tools and get out of harm’s way. “A lot of our tools were around that house, and we couldn’t save them,” Andrew Malachowski, 24, of Hesperia said. Firefighters were able to stop the fire before it spread to a seventh home on the edge of the block, but the rest of the homes were destroyed. Piles of burning rubble were all that was left of five of the homes. The sixth home was still standing with part of the roof had collapsed, but officials said it was a total loss. “Everything is going to have to be bulldozed and rebuilt,” Coon said. A sign outside the subdivision said the homes sold for $139,000. Coon estimated the damage at about $400,000. A number of bystanders gathered on a hillside and along the street to watch as firefighters battled the fire. Bob Pruett, 36, of Hesperia was on his way back from work in Adelanto when he saw the huge plume of smoke pouring from the blaze. “I was thinking it was just a car fire, but it kept getting bigger and bigger,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how much it burned.” San Bernardino County Fire Department firefighters assisted Victorville firefighters with the blaze, which was almost completely out by 2:45 p.m.
UPDATE, Fire-hit plant will be closed at least year
The fire-damaged Farmland Foods processing plant in downtown Albert Lea will be out of commission for at least one year, a company official said Friday. Farmland President George Richter said he could not say how long the plant will be shuttered — or whether it will be rebuilt — but he said there would be no production for 12 to 18 months. Richter promised to give employees more information within 90 days when a structural analysis becomes available. The displaced workers received their final paychecks Friday, along with accrued vacation and holiday pay. Many will be able to work at other Farmland plants, Richter said. The ham packaging plant burned for nearly three days after sparks from a welding torch ignited flammable material Sunday afternoon. About 500 people worked at the plant. — Associated Press
Man critical after chemical blaze; Cigarette touched off blast in solvent truck
Sunthorn Pongpao, Samut Prakan
Two 10-wheel chemical trucks exploded and caught fire at a Samut Prakan factory yesterday after the driver of one of the trucks lit a cigarette near an open solvent tank. Suthep Kanbanjong, 28, a truck driver from M Line Co on Theparak road, was in critical condition after receiving burns to his entire body. The driver who lit the cigarette, identified only as Somkhuan, was slightly injured and fled the scene. Four pick-up trucks and a motorcycle were also damaged. Ten fire engines rushed to M Line factory, a solvent producer, and contained the blaze after two hours. Police said one of the trucks, carrying 9,000 litres of solvent, was about to leave the factory when it broke down. The second truck was parked alongside to transfer the chemical. Mr Suthep had already opened the valve of his solvent tank when Mr Somkhuan lit a cigarette. There was a loud explosion, followed by a huge fire which quickly engulfed the trucks and Mr Suthep. Mr Somkhuan ran away. Damage was estimated at around three million baht. Police will question the factory owner today.
UPDATE, Albert Lea fire rages in plant
By Jennifer Hemmingsen, Special to The Austin Daily Herald, Published Monday, July 09, 2001 1:36 PM CDT
ALBERT LEA – Firefight-ers continued to struggle against a blaze at Farmland Foods into this morning as the fire raged southward within the building. Crews expect another full day of work before the flames are under control. The fire, which started Sunday, apparently leaves more than 700 out of work and the future of Albert Lea’s second-largest employer in doubt. Sixteen fire departments from across the region responded as hundreds of people looked on from the parking lot and surrounding streets. As dawn broke today, many volunteer firefighters had to leave for their day jobs, leaving the scene short of manpower. Firefighters and police responded to a fire call at 5 p.m. They thought the fire was under control in the first moments after arriving, but the fire spread deeper into the Farmland complex. By 5:30 p.m., the fire caught in the roof of the building and spread across other buildings, Albert Lea Police Lt. Tim Matson said. Fire officials sounded an all-call, pulling firefighters from all over Freeborn County and several surrounding communities, Albert Lea Fire Inspector Doug Johnson said. “Basically, they just said whoever’s got men, send them,” Johnson said. The plant contains several flammable materials, including acetylene, anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen, a firefighter said. At 2 a.m. today, they still were trying to drain large tanks of anhydrous ammonia. Crews Sunday focused their attention on keeping ammonia pipes atop the structure cool as the fire burned in the buildings below. By 10 p.m., the fire had engulfed several stories of the old cooler complex. Flames licked the Farmland sign perched on top of the structure. At least three floors of the building were engulfed, Johnson said. Shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, departments began hauling water to the scene with tanker trucks. Officials were concerned Farmland’s water supply would run out, or the fire would spread to mechanical rooms, shutting off the pumps, but the water held up through this morning. Crews were pumping about 3,000 gallons of water onto the inferno each minute. Departments tried to get firefighters in the building Sunday, but abandoned the effort when the fire became too hot. The layout of the complex made entry difficult, Johnson said. It also made it hard for firefighters to contain the fire from the outside, Albert Lea Fire Chief Rich Sydnes said. Sydnes said he had enough personnel and equipment on the scene Sunday, but getting close to the blaze was the biggest challenge. “We can’t get at it. There’s no logical place to cut it off,” he said. “Every time we think we’ve got it, we get another hallway (on fire).” Upper floors within the building had collapsed by this morning, making it too dangerous when firefighters again tried to enter the building on the lower floors. Crews extinguished the fire in the northern part of the facility, including in a small storage structure and in the cooler complex. But Sydnes said there was no hope of putting out the rest of the fire unless firefighters could enter the large, brick cold-storage area where the blaze was concentrated this morning. No serious injuries were reported, although two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion at the Albert Lea Medical Center emergency room. They later returned to the scene, he said. Farmland officials would not speculate on the cause of the fire, but workers said stray sparks from contractors’ pipe cutting began the fire in a box storage room to the north of the plant. Several contractors were in the building when the fire started, Farmland plant manager Ray Roberts said. Few Farmland employees were working at the time, and no one was injured. He wouldn’t speculate on the cause or how long the plant would be closed. Salvation Army volunteers were on the scene, offering firefighters and law enforcement officials water, Gatorade and hamburgers. At 9:30, they had served about 70 people, said Capt. Jamie Pennington, who became aware of the fire as he was driving home after the weekend. “I was stopping back from the Cities and noticed the crew here, and I asked them if they needed some help,” he said. Albert Lea police called in about 20 officers from all shifts to control traffic and keep order at the scene Sunday night, and several Freeborn County Sheriff’s Department deputies also responded. At around 9 p.m., they cleared bystanders from the south side of the plant and from the parking lot, afraid hazardous materials could catch fire and explode. “Man, this is like something you see in movies,” said Ron Nelson, who pulled in to Albert Lea Sunday night after he saw the smoke from Interstate 35. “I had to see what was going on.” Albert Lea Mayor Bob Haukoos will meet with local legislators to apply for relief from the state today. Other areas have gotten unemployment benefit extensions and education credits, he said. Haukoos, a former firefighter, was unsure what the city could do to help Farmland and its employees, but said the council would look into it this week. “We’ll do anything we can,” he said. “We have 700 families involved, and we’ll do anything we can to ease the pain.” The company was in the middle of a major remodeling project, and had planned to add several hundred new jobs by this fall, he said. If the building can be salvaged, rebuilding will not be easy, Haukoos said. “It’s not going to be a month or two job,” he said. “It’s going to be a big job to get it back in service, but it’s a huge employer and we hope they do.” Once the building is declared safe, Johnson and the Minnesota fire marshal will investigate the cause of the blaze.
Fire strikes again at Durfee
JOHN MOSS, Herald News Staff Reporter July 08, 2001
FALL RIVER — It was déjà vu all over again as another fire broke out Saturday afternoon on the roof above the Music Department at B.M.C. Durfee High School. The fire started shortly after 3 p.m. and caused an estimated $23,000 to $25,000 in damage, said acting District Fire Chief William Joaquim. And unlike the last fire, this time there was damage to musical instruments. Joaquim said the fire damaged the area that had been completely repaired after a fire on May 12 that resulted in an estimated $30,000 damage. The cause was the same in both fires, Joaquim said. He said a generator is fired up on weekends. “They let it run for a couple of hours, then cut it down, to be sure it’s operational,” he explained. He said a half-inch steel vent pipe runs from the generator in the basement through the roof. “It runs pretty hot,” Joaquim indicated. “It heated up quite a bit and ignited roof materials.” “It’s the same exact problem,” he said of the cause of both fires. Assistant School Superintendent Richard D. Pavao said the fire was so similar to the previous one that the same school security guard discovered it as in May. “Unfortunately, some musical instruments were damaged” this time, he said, including a xylophone and a bass drum. He said the band leader would determine the damage to the instruments. Also, Pavao said the contractor, Wayne Roofing Systems Inc., 560 American Legion Highway, Westport, would be called in to determine where the problem lies. Some additional people were called in Saturday to “button up” the roof until Monday when final repairs can be done, Pavao said. Questioned about a fire official’s reference in May about heat-absorbent insulation that should have surrounded the pipe, Pavao responded, “That’s the question we have to ask the contractor on Monday.” Also, Pavao said the deductible on the fire insurance that the School Department has on the building is higher than $25,000 so the amount to make the necessary repairs will have to be paid “out-of-pocket with a budget that’s already strained.” The latest fire was brought under control in about 20 minutes and was out shortly afterward. Security personnel were the only people present at the time of the fire. Nobody was hurt. After the May fire, which started about at 4 p.m., a Fire Department spokesman said that normally, the pipe running through the roof would be surrounded by heat-absorbent insulation, but the protective layer had apparently worn off over the years. On Saturday, Joaquim said the fire burned roofing material around the pipe and 10-inch thick boards along the edge of the roof.
4 departments respond to morning blaze
Friday, July 6, 2001, By AMY ORRINGER, NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Milan resident David Bolog didn’t start his day off well Thursday. He arrived at the Milan Township grain farm where he works only to find that the metal barn used as a repair shop was burning to the ground. The night before, he had parked his new Harley Davidson motorcycle in its usual place, inside the barn. Bolog had spent years saving up for the bike. But Bolog’s motorcycle was just one of many things destroyed in the barn fire. Milan Area Fire Chief Bob Stevens estimated the damage would reach anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000. No one was hurt in the fire, and the surrounding buildings were unharmed. Stevens said they were unsure of the exact cause of the fire, but farm owner Gary Heath speculated a blowtorch might have set it off. Heath was working in the barn when the fire started. He said he was busy working on a sprayer when he looked up and noticed the fire in the front of the building. “(I) tried to put the fire out, then said, ‘This isn’t going to happen,”‘ he said. “I called for the fire department and they took it from there.” Firefighters from four area departments worked to douse the flames. The first fire trucks arrived just before 10 a.m. At 11:30, several firefighters were prodding through the pile of metal that used to be the barn, trying to extinguish the smoldering debris. The air was clouded with black and white smoke. The barn housed a sprayer, a tractor, several motorcycles, and parts and tools. “This is a lot of damage,” Heath said. “It’s going to set back our ability to work in the fall a little bit. … It’s a vital part of the farm.” Stevens said he expected that the fire department would have to be on site for most of the afternoon to make sure they extinguished all the fire. He said the only problem spot was around the back of the barn because of a fallen power line. Heath seemed to be in good spirits despite his loss, and made sure to order food for the firefighters before they left. Meanwhile, all Bolog can do is reminisce about the purple motorcycle with flames rolling up the side that he got 11 months ago. He said he will have to wait a few years before he can save up the money to buy himself a new “Hog.” “At least I got pictures,” he said.
Torch ignites rectory
Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/07/01, By JOHN A. HARNES, COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
BELMAR — A fire ripped through the rectory of St. Rose Roman Catholic Church yesterday, causing no serious injuries but destroying all of one priest’s possessions, authorities said. Belmar Fire Chief Sean Pringle said the accidental blaze at the church on Seventh Avenue began about 2:20 p.m when roofers were working over the first-floor porch. A torch that one roofer was using appears to have ignited the fire. The flames quickly spread from the second floor, on the east side of the three-story building, up into the attic, Pringle said. “Once the fire got under the slate roof, it just began to get hotter,” the chief said. Firefighters had to break through that roof to get at the flames. About 50 firefighters responded from Belmar, Avon, Neptune and West Belmar and Glendola in Wall. “It took about 45 minutes to get the fire under control,” Pringle said. At least once yesterday, firefighters had to return to water down areas of the building after the wreckage started smoking. “It was an accident,” said Monsignor Casimir Ladzinski, who lives in the rectory. Another priest, Father Bill Lago, lived on the third floor, and “all he has now is the shirt on his back. They are not even letting him go up there,” Ladzinski said. Ladzinski said he believes the rectory is about 80 years old. He said he was not sure yesterday what arrangements for temporary housing will be made. Carol Lytz, South Belmar, was working to clean the church with her 2-year-old granddaughter, Selena. When they returned to the church from lunch about 2:20 p.m., Lytz said she saw the roofers at work at the rectory next-door to it. “All the windows are shut in the church, and I didn’t hear anything,” she said. However, Lytz said she noticed the windows were getting steamed up in the front of the church, so she opened the door onto Seventh Avenue to see what was happening. She remembers dropping her broom when when smoke rushed in. “I tried to cover my granddaughter’s head,” she said. Emergency workers helped her to an ambulance and gave her some oxygen. “I’m still sore in my lungs,” Lytz said. “Thank God none of the cinders got on the roof of the church,” she said. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what was happening. It’s such a tragedy.” “My brother-in-law and best friend are in the Fire Department, and when the door (to the fire station on Seventh Avenue) opened, I went to see what was happening,” said Teresa Panagakos of Seventh Avenue. “I saw smoke, then the smoke just got very thick quickly,” she said. “There was a lot of smoke for about five minutes, then I saw the flames.” Later, Panagakos spotted smoke coming from the building and alerted authorities. Firefighters sprayed down the wreckage. Parishioner Daniel Guerra, 12, of Eighth Avenue, was enjoying the summer weather when he smelled smoke. Upon investigating, he found firefighters battling the blaze. “It was so interesting, and at the same time it was very sad,” Guerra said. John Caverly, of Oakwood Road, and Ethel Whitt, of Neptune City, are members of the St. Rose High School Class of 1961. When they heard there was a fire there, they rushed over to the church. “Someone told us there was a fire at St. Rose, and I felt devastated,” Whitt said. “Thank God is wasn’t our school.” Caverly said he, Whitt and other classmates share a lot of wonderful memories of their school days. Published on July 7, 2001
Minor fire extinguished quickly
CENTRAL FALLS — A minor fire sparked during some exterior maintenance work brought city firefighters to the Leedon Webbing Co. Friday morning. Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Cournoyer said no one was hurt in the fire and there was no serious, structural damage to the building. Cournoyer said Leedon employees were using a grinding wheel to sand a window frame when they hit a nail or staple, shooting embers against the building’s dry, exterior shingles and sparking the blaze. “They (Leedon employees) shot it with a portable fire extinguisher. Good thing too,” said Cournoyer who commented that the age of the wooden building and the lack of rain in the past few days would have allowed a fire to spread, “extremely rapidly.” After the exterior flames were doused, firefighters searched the walls with the IRIS infrared imaging system to look for “hot spots” hidden in walls but found the fire had not spread beyond the immediate area where the sparks had landed. Cournoyer said fire department personnel were on scene at 86 Tremont Ave. at 9:03a.m. and stayed until 9:56 a.m. Cournoyer said the building suffered about $10,000 worth of damage due to the accident.
Fire at Heinz Field
By TRIBUNE-REVIEW
A small fire sparked by a welder’s torch sent a plume of black smoke above Heinz Field on Friday but was quickly extinguished, officials said. Welders working on structural steel where the stadium scoreboard will hang apparently sent errant sparks onto waterproofing material on the platform below, setting fire to the black rubber material, Steelers spokesman Ron Wahl said. No one was injured in the fire, which sent thick, black smoke over the stadium for several minutes. A preliminary assessment revealed minimal damage, Wahl said. “Fortunately, it was one of those situations where it looked a lot worse than it was,” he said. One city fire engine and two pumper trucks arrived at the stadium just before noon and had the fire extinguished within 10 minutes, Pittsburgh fire Battalion Chief Harry Scherer said. The construction crew’s fire watcher battled the blaze using his water truck before the arrival of firefighters, officials said. Scherer said welders’ tools often cause small fires that can easily be extinguished by workers. But the fire watcher could not reach the blaze with his equipment because of the height of the scoreboard, he said. Scherer said firefighters were able to climb up the steel structure for the still-under-construction scoreboard at the south end of the stadium. They shut off power at a nearby junction box and hosed the area thoroughly. Wahl said a structural engineer was assessing the damage.
Fire at Mercury sends worker to hospital
By Frank Scotello, Of The Reporter Staff
One man went to the hospital for observation as a result of a fire Thursday morning at Mercury Marine. Capt. Steve Beer of the Fond du Lac Fire Department said firefighters responded to call at 8:48 a.m. at Mercury’s Plant 17. He said a crew from Muza Sheet Metal of Oshkosh was disassembling an aluminum dust collector outside the plant when the fire began. Beer said that the men were using a torch to loosen bolts and apparently caused a spark in the dust residue inside the collector. Employees from Muza were attempting to extinguish the fire as the Fire Department arrived. One of the Muza employees was transported to St. Agnes Hospital by ambulance for possible inhalation of fire extinguisher chemicals. Tom Mielke, a Mercury Marine spokesman, said the man was checked out and went back to work. For the most part, the fire was confined to the large aluminum dust collector. However, Beer said there was some smoke damage to the outside of the plant. Beer said some Fire Department personnel stayed on the site for about two hours. They used a thermal imaging camera to monitor the situation.
Welding Containers
In two recent incidents in Ontario, explosions during welding fuel tanks killed three workers. In the first, two workers welding a 150-gallon diesel fuel tank were fatally injured. In the second, a 500-gallon gasoline tank exploded during welding, killing a worker. These accidents would not have happened if proper cleaning, purging and testing procedures had been followed. After the first incident, it was discovered that the diesel fuel in the tank was contaminated with gasoline. As little as two per cent of gasoline in diesel fuel can create an explosive mixture in a closed container, with the flashpoint (the temperature at which a spark or other ignition source will cause an explosion) falling below the temperature inside the container. For any hot work such as welding or cutting a container that may have contained flammable or combustible material, the following minimum precautions must be taken:
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The container’s internal layout must be determined to make sure that fittings such as baffles will not interfere with cleaning or purging.
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The container must be drained and cleaned using appropriate methods.
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To determine whether draining and cleaning has made the container safe, its interior must be tested with a combustible gas detector both before hot work begins and periodically during the work.
However, some containers cannot be drained and cleaned well enough to make them safe. Such containers may be made safe by purging and inerting with an inert gas, but only if these precautions are taken:
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Recognized procedures and proper equipment must be used.
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The oxygen level inside the container must be monitored with an oxygen analyser and maintained at essentially zero for the duration of the work. To accomplish this, if steam is used the hot work must be completed before the container begins to cool. If inert gas is used then the purging must be continued throughout the duration of the hotwork.
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Workers must be made aware of the limitations of the inerting process.
NEVER ASSUME A CONTAINER IS CLEAN OR SAFE. MAKE SURE THAT IS IT MADE SAFE AND THAT ITS SAFETY IS VERIFIED BY TESTING BEFORE ANY HOT WORK BEGINS. NOT FOLLOWING THIS RULE IS LIKELY TO KILL YOU!
Occupational Health & Safety
1995-07-24
(1999 accident)
Storage tank explosion kills 2 workers, severely burns 1
By Leon Alligood / Tennessean Staff Writer
Two men were killed and another was severely burned yesterday when a storage tank containing crude oil exploded less than a mile north of Livingston. The dead were identified as Marty Geesling and Johnny Garrett, both of Overton County. Their co-worker Kelly J. Daniels, 25, also of Livingston, was severely burned. He was airlifted to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga. A hospital spokesman said he was in critical condition. According to authorities, the men were independent contractors working for the oil well owner, Young Oil Co. of Knob Lick, Ky. At the time of the explosion, which was reported just before 7:45 a.m., the men were doing maintenance on two tanks. They finished one tank Tuesday and had just begun working on the second yesterday when it erupted in a blast heard for several miles. A wall of flame leaped more than 150 feet into the air, and the metal structure was hurled about 40 feet away. The tank had a capacity of 210 barrels, about 7,000 gallons. Sheriff’s investigators think a spark from a grinder apparently ignited fumes that had built up inside. “I was 200 to 300 yards from the scene and (Daniels) came running up to me. He was very badly burned,” said Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Rob Schoettle, the first officer to respond. “About the only place on him that wasn’t burned was his shoes.” Schoettle said Daniels told him the men who were killed had been working on top of the tank, but did not say where he was when the explosion occurred. Overton County, located on the Cumberland Plateau about 90 miles east of Nashville, is the most active drilling area in the state, said Bill Goodwin, executive director of the Tennessee Oil and Gas Association. Natural gas is a byproduct of crude oil and can build up in tanks. The safest way to do maintenance work on them is to drain and fill them with water, Goodwin said. “Sometimes when they’ve got a tank empty and totally vented, they think it’s safe,” he said. “You can usually safely weld on it without it being a problem. In this particular case, there was evidently more gas present than they thought.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
MADRID, Spain — Fire has devastated an indoor sports arena in central Madrid.
Clouds of smoke from the huge blaze on Thursday could be seen several kilometres away, a fire service spokesman said. The metal roof of the Palacio de Deportes, in one of the city’s main shopping districts, collapsed and two people needed treatment for smoke inhalation. The musical “Riverdance” had been due to open on Thursday night and preparations were being made for the opening. The fire was believed to have been caused by a welding torch, said Mayor Jose Maria Alvarez de Manzano. The complex has hosted important sports events and concerts by well-known pop stars. In 1982, thousands gathered in it to see Pope John Paul II. The injured, a firefighter and a workman, were treated and released, police said.
Three injured in Caesars fire
Propane tank explodes on roof of hotel, causing two-alarm blaze
An explosion and brief roof fire Thursday at Caesars Palace sent three people to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Clark County Fire Department said. The 11:24 a.m. blast atop one of the hotel-casino’s four guest towers caused about $30,000 damage to the hotel, sounded a boom heard several blocks away and left a dark smoke plume hanging over the Strip. A 29-year-old construction worker near the propane tank explosion suffered shrapnel-like injuries and second-degree burns on his hands, arms and face. He was taken to University Medical Center, where a spokesman said he had burns on 3 percent of his body and was expected to be released Thursday. Two guests in a room near the explosion site suffered minor injuries, including a concussion and smoke-related injuries. Paramedics transported the couple to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where a hospital spokeswoman said both were listed in good condition. The worker was reroofing the Centurion Tower, a three-story structure between two higher guest room towers at the resort, using tar and a heating torch, according to Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach. When a 5-gallon propane tank fell or was knocked over, leaking gas ignited and pressure from the heat exploded the tank, Leinbach said. The fire mostly burned roofing materials, but also scorched a nearby wall. Workers on the roof battled flames with water from a roof firehose cabinet until firefighters arrived, Leinbach said. A half-hour after the blaze, workers carrying materials down from the roof said the explosion was deafening and that the fire was extinguished in minutes. Smoke detectors immediately sounded, but authorities did not evacuate the hotel or casino. Scores of guests and employees voluntarily left the property or went outside to watch the spectacle. About 16 fire units with about 50 firefighting and paramedic personnel responded to the two-alarm fire. A stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard near Flamingo Road was closed for emergency vehicle access between 11:30 and 1 p.m., backing up traffic at one of the city’s busiest intersections. Traffic was also rerouted on Industrial Road and Interstate 15.
Roofers blamed for $2 million fire
BY STEPHEN A. CROCKETT JR., Mercury News
Fire officials say workers with a propane torch accidentally started the fire that damaged two historic buildings in downtown Redwood City on Monday. Roofers caused the fire that heavily damaged two historic buildings in downtown Redwood City on Monday, fire officials have found. Redwood City Fire Chief Edward Montez said a team at work on the landmark Alhambra Theatre’s roof inadvertently started the fire with a propane torch they were using to seal seams. After applying a coat of materials midday, the workers took a break for lunch and returned to find a quickly spreading fire that prompted seven alarms and a 100-firefighter response. After stepping through the damaged Alhambra building on Tuesday, investigators concluded that the fire was accidental and estimated damage to the two buildings at $2 million. Most of that was to the Alhambra Theatre building — also known as the Masonic Temple — at 835 Main St., though the Odd Fellows Hall next door at 839 Main was also damaged. A day after the huge blaze, many residents came out to show support and gaze at the fire-marked building. “It was such a beautiful building; this is just a shame,” said Mimi Ismail, who was in the neighborhood to make sure her favorite antique store — Henry’s Eclectic Antiques, next door to the Alhambra Theatre — was still intact. “I just wanted to make sure the store was OK and that no one was hurt,” she said. She was relieved to see that Henry’s was open for business. The store suffered minimal interior damage, and the roof may be in danger of caving in, but the owner considers himself lucky. “The fire department saved me and my merchandise,” said Henry Sumaraga. He said the show of support he has received has been overwhelming. “Thirty to 40 customers have come by just to make sure the store is OK. My voice mail is packed. It is really good to see this kind of support.” Redwood City Planner Charles Jany, the city’s resident history expert, is still feeling the shock of the fire. Jany said the Mission-style Alhambra Theatre was built in the early 1900s. Its facade and that of the Odd Fellows Hall were built in 1921, after the original fronts were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. “I’m still grieving about this whole thing,” Jany said. John Anagnostoui’s family owns the Alhambra Theatre building and many other properties downtown and was in the process of renovating the building. He was cautiously optimistic about the turn of events, though he hadn’t been able to walk through the fire-ravaged building yet. `I am pretty confident that we can restore the building,” he said. “We cannot restore the history, but we can rebuild the building. I’m just happy that no one got hurt because we can’t rebuild lives.” Staff writer Karen de Sá contributed to this report.
Empty chicken ranch barn burns
The fire is accidentally started by workers using a propane torch to clean coops.
BY ERIN D. RANDOLPH, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE SAGE
Firefighters saved more than 40,000 chickens and two large coops Monday afternoon when an empty coop nearby caught fire while workers used a torch inside it, investigators said. California Department of Forestry Capt. Greg Everhart said the fire started around 3 p.m. at Maust’s California Farms on Sage Road, a mile southeast of Hemet. He said the fire started while farm workers used a propane torch inside the empty aluminum coop to clean feathers from wire cages. He said investigators have determined the blaze to be accidental. Firefighters were able to control the blaze before it engulfed the neighboring coops, which had chickens in them, and spread up a nearby hill. A few chickens in the other coops could have been injured and farmworkers were checking them after the fire. The burned coop was a total loss. Damage was estimated at about $120,000. Everhart said the coop normally holds about 25,000 chickens valued at about $1 each. Chickens, raised for eggs at the farm, squawked as high-powered fans cleared smoke from the undamaged coops Monday. Two hand crews and nine engines responded to the fire.
UPDATE, Shipyard deaths not due to safety lapse, says MSE
Nine workers died last week in Pasir Gudang explosion (SINGAPORE) The explosion which killed nine Malaysian Shipyard and Engineering Sdn Bhd (MSE) workers on Wednesday morning in Pasir Gudang was not due to a lack of workplace safety procedures, according to MSE chairman Mohd Ali Yasin. ‘The incident was unfortunate. They went through all the various procedures, they were inspected thoroughly to make sure that the area was gas-free every time they went into the tank,’ he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report. Malaysian Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik said his ministry will conduct a detailed investigation into the cause of the accident on the oil tanker, New Renown, once it has received a preliminary report from MSE. The eight Malaysians – including one MSE senior foreman – and one permanent resident were found dead by the shipyard’s emergency response squad minutes after the fire alarm was triggered at about 10 am. The nine are believed to have suffocated following a flash fire while they were carrying out welding work according to MSE officials. ‘There was no explosion but a flash fire, the cause of which is still unknown to us. The fire, which lasted about 10 minutes, triggered our alarm system and several other workers who were near the tank alerted our emergency unit,’ the company’s CEO Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman was quoted as saying. The nine victims – who were reportedly carrying out welding repairs to pipes that transfer liquid between cargo tanks – were found sprawled in the 15 by 20 metre cargo tanks with safety suits intact and no severe burn marks. ‘This has led us to believe that they died from suffocation probably due to hydrocarbons, a result of chemical reaction between oil and other substances in the tank,’ said Mr Abdul Rahman. The Liberian-registered 240,830 DWT, 1976-built New Renown is owned by Hong Kong-based Associated Maritime. – By Donald Urquhart
Welding Torch Spark Ignites 15-Acre Fire
From Times Staff Reports
A brush fire sparked by a welding operation burned more than 15 acres near Lake Piru on Friday before being contained by about 155 firefighters and aircraft. The fire began about 3 p.m. when a spark from a welding torch ignited grass, said Joe Luna, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. No structures were threatened.
Explosion onboard Monrovia vessel kills nine workers; Workers died of burns, suffocation while doing minor repairs on ship
An explosion ripped across an empty tanker undergoing repairs at the Malaysian Shipyard Engineering here this morning, killing nine workers on board. The nine, eight of whom were contract workers hired by a private engineering contractor and the other an employee of the shipyard, were found badly burnt. They were also believed to have suffocated when the explosion occured at Quay 3 of the shipard at 10.30am. It is believed that the workers, all Malaysians, were involved in some minor repair works on the Monrovia registered tanker, the 300-tonne New Renown, owned by a Hong Kong company, when tragedy struck. The workers were about to finish laying new pipes and changing plates with some welding work being done in one of the storage compartment measuring 12 by 12 metres. The repair work was scheduled to have been completed by today and the tanker was supposed to leave tomorrow. Eyewitnesses said the nine were trapped inside and by the time the first of three fire engines arrived from the Pasir Gudang Fire Station, shortly after receiving a distress call at 10.32am, the workers were believed to have died from their injuries. The first of the nine bodies were taken to the Hospital Sultanah Aminah in Johor Baru by ambulance and arrived at the HASB just before 2pm. This was followed by seven bodies in a lorry and the last two in a police van. In it’s 28-year operation history , the MSE, which repairs 100 ships a year, has never suffered a catastrophe of such propotion. Safety measures has always been of priority of Malaysia Shipyard and Engineering, since it commenced operations about 25 years ago. Despite constant reminders, MSE has had mishaps and deaths reported. But if statistics were anything to go by, incident rate at the yard continue to remain low taking into consideration about 100 ships are handled each year. In March 1984, an explosion onboard the vessel World Gala resulted in three workers suffering minor injuries. In February 1985, three workers of the engineering divison were hurt in an explosion in the repairs section. Nine days later there was also an explosion onboard a tanker and although no one was hurt, eight workers were overcome by fumes. In September that year, a worker was killed onboard the tanker Rajendra Prasad, after a fire broke out. In June 1986, a fire which broke out in the pump room of a tanker, left four injured. In 1995, two workers were killed on the same day in separate incidents. One was electrocuted while doing some repair work onboard a ship and the other was hit by a falling object while working on a tanker.
Torch Causes Beaverton City Hall Fir
BEAVERTON, Ore., 8:56 a.m. PDT June 20, 2001 — A roofer’s torch ignited a blaze that tore through parts of Beaverton City Hall Monday. Investigators say that a torch, used to heat the overlay to help it bond to the roof, ignited a smoldering fire Sunday. It burst into flames around 1 a.m. Monday. Damage was limited to the south end of the building, which is located at 4755 S.W. Griffith Drive. A damage estimate is not yet available. However, firefighters say that smoke, fire and water harmed equipment and destroyed records stored in the building. Some city staffers had to relocate.