Twenty years ago this week a chemical plant explosion in Pennsylvania killed five and injured six, becoming one of the first major investigations conducted by the newly established U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. The explosion occurred at Concept Sciences Inc., near Allentown, PA, on February 19, 1999. As a result of the explosion four Concept Sciences employees and the manager of an adjacent business were killed. Two Concept Sciences employees were injured, as were four people in nearby buildings. The explosion damaged ten buildings and several residences in the immediate area. The case study found that the explosion was most likely due to high concentration and temperature in a process vessel containing several hundred pounds of hydroxylamine, a potentially explosive chemical used in the manufacture of semiconductors. Concept Sciences' process safety management systems were insufficient to properly address the hazards inherent in its manufacturing process. The case study added...

By CHIP CUTTER/Wall Street Journal Corporate executives worried about workplace shootings are quietly installing gunfire-detection systems in U.S. offices and factories. Most don’t tell employees what the sensors are, for fear of alarming them. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced EPA’s Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Action Plan. It responds to extensive public interest and input the agency has received over the past year and represents the first time EPA has built a multi-media, multi-program, national communication and research plan to address an emerging environmental challenge like PFAS. Concern about PFAS is central to the continuing controversy over the use of fluorinated chemicals in firefighting foam. EPA’s Action Plan identifies both short-term solutions for addressing these chemicals and long-term strategies that will help provide the tools and technologies states, tribes, and local communities need to provide clean and safe drinking water to their residents and to address PFAS at the source—even before it gets into the water. “The PFAS Action Plan is the most comprehensive cross-agency plan to address an emerging chemical of concern ever undertaken by EPA,” said EPA Acting...

By BRYAN KIRK/Patch HARRIS COUNTY, TX -- Harris County Fire Marshal's Office (HCFMO) Assistant Chief Bob Royall was awarded the Emergency Management Association of Texas Lifetime Achievement Award, at the 2019 EMAT Leadership Symposium in San Marcos, TX. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE.

POST ONLINE MEDIA Around 60 people are to be punished for their roles in a chemical plant explosion that killed 19 workers and injured 12 in southwest China's Sichuan Province last July, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency. To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

By REBECCA RAINEY/Politico States are facing a new danger as legal marijuana spreads across the country: Explosions and fires at cannabis factories are sending workers to the hospital with severe burns, revealing the nascent industry's lack of proper safety standards. To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has released its final report of the June 27, 2016, investigation of an explosion and fire at the Enterprise Products Pascagoula Gas Plant in Pascagoula, MS. The CSB determined that the probable cause was a phenomenon known as thermal fatigue.  The CSB also issued recommendations to two trade associations and local emergency responders.   The incident occurred late in the evening on June 27, 2016, when a major loss of containment in a heat exchanger resulted in the release of methane, ethane, propane, and several other hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons ignited, initiating a series of fires and explosions, which ultimately shut down the site for almost six months.  CSB Interim Executive Kristen Kulinowski said, “More than 500 gas processing facilities operate across the country and the use of similar heat exchangers is common. Extending the life cycle of equipment at these facilities requires more robust inspection protocols.  Operators shouldn’t...

    By ANTON RIECHER/IFW Editor In North America, the containment surrounding a flammable liquid storage tank is known as a dike. However, Jan Waals, in charge of emergency response for Europe’s largest port, is more likely to think of a dike as a wall built to keep the Atlantic Ocean from flooding his native country, not crude oil. “The Netherlands is a very small country with a lot of inhabitants,” he said. “Every square meter must be used to its maximum. All the installations in the port, the industrial plants, operate so close together.” Waals is director of the 315-member Joint Fire Brigade, an organization that provides firefighting and other assistance in or near the Port of Rotterdam. The brigade is a joint venture of the city of Rotterdam and nearly 60 companies operating in or near the massive port. The director was among the fire protection experts on hand...

A fire detection system that apparently activated by mistake may have started a chain reaction that led to a blaze that shut down one of Michigan's busiest natural gas facilities during a record-breaking cold snap, a Consumers Energy official said Wednesday. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE

Springfield, IL - An adult and an alleged teenage accomplice are charged with setting fire to an abandoned central Illinois food processing plant. Twenty-four-year-old Richard L. Thomas of Springfield and a 17-year-old boy were charged Wednesday with arson and criminal damage to property in connection with a fire at the abandoned Pillsbury Mills factory. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE

WILMINGTON , DE - A chemical plant owner has repaid the Delaware River and Bay Authority nearly $150,000 in lost revenue after a toxic gas leak forced a bridge to close for hours in 2018.             Robert Stewart with Croda Inc. said in a Tuesday statement that reimbursing the DRBA is the right thing to do.       TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE   

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a lawsuit filed after Hurricane Harvey, a federal judge has ordered the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board to force the disclosure of chemical emissions resulting from accidents. More than 1,000 industrial chemical accidents take place every year. The biggest include the explosions that killed 15 people at a fertilizer plant in West, TX,  and the explosions that took place at the Arkema chemical plant in the Houston area after unprecedented flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE

Legendary industrial firefighter Dwight Williams is proposing a compromise. If he pulls it off, it could be a major step forward in resolving the irreconcilable controversy over the continued use of fluorinated chemicals in firefighting foam. Dwight P. Williams and US Fire Pump used the 42-foot diameter storage tank project at the newly reopened International Rescue Training Field in Beaumont, TX to test his fluorinated 1 x 3 AR-AFFF Signature series foam using the US Fire Pump Defender fixed appliance. With nearly a minute of pre-burn before application of the foam the fire was totally extinguished in two minutes and 43 seconds using the single Defender appliance.  Foam was metered with a 1½-inch line educator moving 125 gpm set at one percent. “Although this was impressive, our application rate was only .07,” Williams said “If our application rate was up to about .10 it puts the fire out a lot quicker.”...

Opponents of firefighting foam containing fluorinated chemicals fail to fairly weigh the overwhelming benefits of these products against evidence that exposure can ultimately lead to adverse health effects in humans, said Mitch Hubert, a leading chemist or “formulator” working in this specialized market. Speaking to an international audience of industrial fire responders in October, Hubert said that fluorinated foams are under attack from an environmental standpoint on a worldwide basis.  “That has really led us to a crossroads in the firefighting foam industry,” he said. “Do we stay with fluorinated foams or go to non-fluorinated foams? There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides of that argument.” Chief among the disadvantages for industrial firefighters is the lack of a substantial track record of success using non-fluorinated foam, Hubert said. “Fluorine free foams have not proven to be as effective in large catastrophic fire,” he said. “This is much of what the...

Citgo Petroleum cut production at its 167,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Lemont (Other OTC:  LEMT  -  news ) , Illinois, on Wednesday due to issues related to the extreme cold weather, a source familiar with the plant's operations said. The Midwest region has suffered a spate of unexpected refinery outages in recent days that has pushed up cash prices for refined products. A large swath of the United States was gripped by brutal cold and wind chills on Wednesday as record-low temperatures caused by a blast of Arctic air moved across the Midwest and into Eastern states, prompting residents to stay indoors. To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.    

Success is accomplishing a particular objective, goal or aim. Failure is the inability to achieve success. In industrial firefighting, the main factor that distinguishes the two is the selection of tools, industrial fire protection giant Dwight Williams told firefighters in October. “Bottom line, what’s the difference between you and me?” Williams asked. “I’m a little older, a little taller maybe than some of you, but not any smarter or braver. It’s the selection of tools and equipment that makes the difference.” Successful extinguishment is the value of the product saved being greater than the cost of extinguishment, including lost time injuries, Williams told firefighters attending the US Fire Pump Big Water Symposium in Baton Rouge. Just being on hand when the fire finally goes out does not count as a success, he said. With more than 100 major industrial emergency operations to his credit, Williams joined with US Fire Pump and...

                                On Jan. 1, 1994, provisions of the M ontreal Protocol, an international agreement intended to protect the ozone layer, banned the domestic production of halons. One of the most effective firefighting agents known to humanity found itself condemned to death with no chance of a reprieve. Well, kinda. Halon continues to play an important role in fire protection today. We nurse stockpiles of it to keep our automatic systems in aircraft and electronic centers fully pressurized. Why? Because halon extinguishes in minimal time, is non-corrosive and relatively non-toxic to humans. Nothing better has been found to replace it. Fast forward to the present. Long range environmental concerns threaten to torpedo the use of fluorinated surfactants in Class B firefighting foam. However, testing to date still finds fluorinated foams vastly superior to non-fluorinated substitutes. Unlike halon,...

Rio Tinto (RIO -0.4%) says it declared force majeure on some iron ore contracts after a fire at its Cape Lambert export terminal in Australia last week. To read the entire article,  CLICK HERE

CLINTON, Iowa -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has confirmed that it has launched two separate investigations into explosions at ADM corn processing plants in Iowa and Illinois over the weekend. To read the entire article,  CLICK HERE .

The Daily Breeze The El Segundo Fire Department will get a lot of new equipment later this year, thanks to Chevron — and the federal government.   A new fire engine, a utility truck, radios and a new set of firefighting gear, among other items, are coming the department’s way, because of a federal settlement over allegations the Chevron Corporation violated the Clean Air Act. The settlement, finalized last year, required Chevron to make a $250,000 contribution to El Segundo, and the company added another $900,000, which the South Bay city accepted in December. Read The Entire Article Here