Chemical Plant Explosion/Fire

[Easy Bakes 253]

Chemical Mixing goes wrong. town evacuated

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/03/national/main20114848.shtml

the towns name is pronounced Wax-A-hatchy

  Edited October 3, 2011 by Easy Bakes  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Chemical Mixing goes wrong. town evacuated

http://www.cbsnews.c...n20114848.shtml

the towns name is pronounced Wax-A-hatchy

The question is was it a human error or a control computer bug? We valves being handled manually?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

This is a tragedy!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

No one was hurt. Lots of expense for some insurance company. I fail to see how it is tragic.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I guess I should have done more than skim but I heard that people's houses and schools burnt down, which is tragic. It would be a Greek Tragedy if everyone died.

[Keder 116]

That's very terrible.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

That's very terrible.

Why?

[emperordaniel 1,281]

That's very terrible.

Why?

Because people's houses burned down, perhaps?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ Indeed if true, but I saw nothing official on that. However, there was no loss of life.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Still no word on if was equipment failure or human error.

probably wont know for a week or so.

[hamsterTK 93]

In other fire related news, a Garden Ridge pottery home decor store in northern Houston burned up. Everyone got out, but shortly after the store was basically consumed.

photo: http://www.chron.com/mediaManager/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=1665614&width=628&height=471

That fall harvest cinnamon potpourri sure is some volatile stuff

  Edited October 16, 2011 by hamsterTK  

[Easy Bakes 253]

In other fire related news, a Garden Ridge pottery home decor store in northern Houston burned up. Everyone got out, but shortly after the store was basically consumed in a massive fireball.

photo: http://www.chron.com/mediaManager/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=1665614&width=628&height=471

ATF is investigating. Personal theory-fire started on the tiki torch and potpourri aisle I bet all that black smoke smelled of cinnamon and citronella, lol.

tiki torch fuel and dried herbs and flowers.

not a good combo.

update to the magnablend fire.Wastewater Treatment Product that the EPA didnt know they were making

sparked the fire.

Pendery said it is not clear whether the company is required to disclose ingredients of the product to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as must be done with many hazardous chemicals.

He refused to reveal those ingredients Thursday

Why would you NOT have to disclose the ingredients of a manufactured chemical solution used to treat waste water that gets put back into out lakes?

Wastewater not want not

  Edited October 16, 2011 by Easy Bakes  

[Larks2242 251]

Atlas was another company that had an explosion, but the worst that i heard of happened in Henderson NV.

There was a bad accident when i was in Jacksonville a few years ago, lucky i wasen't anyway near it happened, it was right by the nuclear plant in an industrial park, some scary stuff.

[Odainsaker 2,133]

Pendery said it is not clear whether the company is required to disclose ingredients of the product to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as must be done with many hazardous chemicals.

He refused to reveal those ingredients Thursday

Why would you NOT have to disclose the ingredients of a manufactured chemical solution used to treat waste water that gets put back into out lakes?

Likely a waiver or loophole narrowly targetted to a favored industry group or kickback provider under the guise of promoting or maintaining growth.

Recall that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was formerly known as the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, whose acronymn TNRCC was mercilessly lampooned as "Trainwreck," and which was infamous in the state as the moral hazard epitome of a regulatory agency owned by and in cahoots with the industries that it was supposed to be overseeing. To deflect further attention away from its blackened reputation as an enabler and shield for polluters and the political cronyism of being a reward appointment for industry campaign contributors and loyal lobbyists, the "Trainwreck" was renamed in 2002 to the much more uplifting "Texas Commission on Environmental Quality." TCEQ still remains one of the most "business friendly" environmental regulators of any U.S. state, while air and water pollution levels continue to rise in Texas.

Ah well, Texas fires seems to be the theme in this thread...oddly enough, I was not at the time really following the chemical plant or Garden Ridge fires, for two days before San Antonio was instead focused on the burning and collapse of the picturesque Wolfson Building, a historic landmark on Main Plaza opposite the City Council building that was one of the few remaining 1880 commercial structures in the area. Lore tells us that the building also stood on the site where General Santa Anna mounted his headquarters for the Battle of the Alamo. For a tourist city that prides itself on preserving its downtown historic fabric, with its blend of Old West, Old South, and Old Spanish Mission, this is a tragedy:

Massive fire guts 1880 city landmark - San Antonio Express-News.

The Wolfson Building is destroyed by fire.

Thankfully, despite close calls for the fire fighters when the building's walls collapsed, ultimately no one was injured in the pre-dawn fire.

  Edited October 16, 2011 by Odainsaker  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

A chemical fire in a plant with a sneakret formula for treating wastewaster? What could they possibly be putting in that would be flammable? They say it was a new product so one assumes that, the documentation having been destroyed, there is no bench-test evidence. If the Texas authorities have any gumption at all they will insist on knowing what was in that stuff. Is the Fire Marshall powerless in Texas?

{Hey! That's the first ablative absolute I've used in years of writing! Ave Caesar!}

[hym 358]

What could they possibly be putting in that would be flammable?

Nearly everything on this planet is flammable. They could be putting in anything from a chemical that gives us all 3 eyes by breakfast to carbon powder for filtration purposes.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

They said that ammonia from its main line of products was a likely culprit and not the sewage treatment chemicals, though...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

They said that ammonia from its main line of products was a likely culprit and not the sewage treatment chemicals, though...

Ammonia, and especially Ammonium anhydride is really bad stuff. In an industrial setting you can get poisoned and blown up at the same time. If that stuff gets near any halogens, you would have an explosion that would destroy the neighborhood. Sir Humphrey Davy, the father of modern physical chemistry, lost most of the fingers on this hand when he discovered ammonium chloride. It is sensitive to any shock, and I gather he shook the test tube.