Earth Watch Report - Hazmat
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| Description |
Salt
Lake City fire and haz-mat crews were involved in a tense situation
Sunday night with an unstable chemical that had the potential to
explode. Late Sunday night, the department came up with a plan to remove
the dangerous chemical and put it in a trench that was being dug
overnight by Salt Lake City police. Then sometime Monday about
mid-morning, crews plan to safely detonate the explosive material. The
incident began just after 9:30 a.m., when Salt Lake City fire crews were
called to a small fire at Quality Distribution Inc., 421 N. John Glenn
Road (6070 West). The fire was extinguished quickly, but as an
investigator was going through the building a few hours later, he found
that Trigonox was leaking.
By 6 p.m., a full assignment was
recalled to the warehouse as well as additional help from other agencies
including the U.S. Army and the Salt Lake International Airport. Salt
Lake City fire spokesman Jasen Asay said Trigonox is an organic peroxide
that can become unstable at 68 degrees, and when the temperature
reaches 77 degree the process cannot be reversed at all and the chemical
cannot be stabilized. Because of the earlier fire, the refrigeration in
the building was not working, he said. Asay said by Sunday night, the
temperature of the chemical had surpassed 77 degrees. For the chemical
to explode, it needs to be triggered by a "shock," Asay said. That could
be just static electricity or even a piece of metal falling to the
floor and creating a small spark. The explosive force would be about the
equivalent of a pipe bomb, he said.
Approximately 2,400 gallons
of Trigonox are believed to be stored in the building in five gallon
drums. Asay said five of those drums were believed to be leaking Sunday.
Late Sunday, Salt Lake police helped fire crews and started digging a
trench, about 60-feet long and 4-feet deep. The plan, Asay said, was for
a couple of haz-mat crew members from Salt Lake City and Murray Fire to
enter the building and use a forklift to take the damaged barrels to
the loading dock where a second team will use a fork lift to take the
barrels to the trench. Once the damaged barrels were in the trench, Asay
said crews would detonated the explosive chemical. There was no set
time on when that would happen. But Asay said it would likely be about
mid-morning Monday. |
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KSL.com UTAH
Area evacuated due to chemical spill; crews on scene
By Pat Reavy
Shoot
water onto the roof of the warehouse in an effort to keep the chemicals
cooler. Firefighters and the Military respond Sunday, June 30, 2013 to a
chemical spill in a warehouse at 421 north John Glenn road in Salt Lake
City. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
SALT
LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City fire and haz-mat crews were involved in a
tense situation Sunday night with an unstable chemical that had the
potential to explode.
As of 10 p.m., a team was being assembled to
go inside the building where the chemical was leaking and take pictures
before officials figured out their next move of how to dispose of the
dangerous items.
The incident began just after 9:30 a.m., when
Salt Lake City fire crews were called to a small fire at Quality
Distribution Inc., 421 N. John Glenn Road (6070 West). The fire was
extinguished quickly, but as an investigator was going through the
building a few hours later, he found that Trigonox was leaking.
By
6 p.m., a full assignment was recalled to the warehouse as well as
additional help from other agencies including the U.S. Army and the Salt
Lake International Airport.
Salt Lake City fire spokesman Jasen
Asay said Trigonox is an organic peroxide that can become unstable at 68
degrees, and when the temperature reaches 77 degree the process cannot
be reversed at all and the chemical cannot be stabilized. Because of the
earlier fire, the refrigeration in the building was not working, he
said. Asay said by Sunday night, the temperature of the chemical had
surpassed 77 degrees.
Read More Here
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Hazmat crews detonate dangerous Chemical at Salt Lake Business
Updated: 12:41 pm |
Published: 12:35 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (ABC 4 UTAH) - A hazmat situation west of Salt Lake International Airport had firefighters on high alert after a fire at Quality Distribution Incorporated lead to the threat of an explosion.
A
plume of black smoke could be seen just after 8 Monday morning after
the Salt Lake City Fire Department and several other agencies exploded
dozens of containers of Trigonox. Jasen Asay with the Salt Lake City
Fire Department says the chemical is a dangerous organic peroxide that
was found leaking inside the Salt Lake business. He tells ABC 4 Utah “We
were able to remove around 40 of these containers which contains five
gallons of the chemical put them into a ditch and we were able to do a
controlled detonation.”
Asay,
says the chemical leak was discovered Sunday while fire investigators
were trying to determine the cause of the fire. “We believe the air
conditioning system inside this building was not functioning properly so
the containers, a couple of the containers were compromised with the
chemical inside,” says Asay.
Read More Here
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KSL.com UTAH
Crews to ignite 2nd round of unstable chemical at Salt Lake business
By Pat Reavy and Haley Smith
SALT
LAKE CITY — Fire crews will ignite more drums of a dangerous chemical
Monday night outside a warehouse that has kept them busy for more than
24 hours.
Monday morning, more than 40 barrels of Trigonox were safely removed from Quality Distribution Inc.,
421 N. John Glenn Road (6070 West), put in a trench and ignited.
Salt Lake City Fire spokesman Jasen Asay said crews need to burn three times that amount Monday night.
An
additional 144 drums that were originally moved from Quality
Distribution to a refrigerated trailer outside have been determined to
be unsafe and need to be destroyed, he said.
Crews were busy
Monday afternoon digging a new trench, twice as big as the last one.
After the sun goes down about 9 p.m., Asay said the barrels of Trigonox
will be moved into the trench.
Hazardous materials crews hope the burning of the chemical will mark the end of an operation that began Sunday.
Around
9 a.m. Sunday, Crews responded to a fire at Quality Distribution.
Sprinklers had extinguished the flames, but firefighters found the air
conditioning was out and several containers of the chemical Trigonox
were leaking inside the warehouse.
About Trigonox
- Brand name
- Specific compound involved is Trigonox 21S
- A liquid that requires temperature control and should be kept in dry, well-ventilated places
- So volatile that it should not come into contact with direct sunlight
- Starts to become unstable at 68 degrees
- At 77 degrees instability cannot be reversed
Source: polymerpds.akzonobel.com
Approximately
2,400 gallons of Trigonox were stored in the building in 5-gallon
drums. Early Monday crews used forklifts to move the drums into a
3-foot-deep, 60-foot-wide trench outside the building before igniting
them.
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Firefighters
clean up a radioactive spill at a work site in Cliftleigh between
Heddon Greta and Testers Hollow on Monday afternoon. Photo by Marina
Neil
Firefighters
clean up a radioactive spill at a work site in Cliftleigh between
Heddon Greta and Testers Hollow on Monday afternoon. Photo by Marina
Neil
