A
University of Iowa staff member who loaded balloons filled with hydrogen
and a hydrogen-oxygen mix into a vehicle was injured Tuesday when the
balloons apparently exploded.
According
to the University of Iowa Police Department, Dale Stille filled eight
balloons - four with hydrogen and four with a hydrogen/oxygen mix -
and placed them into a Ford Explorer owned by the university. The
vehicle was parked near the loading dock of Van Allen
Hall.
Police said when Stille opened a
side door, there was an explosion. He was originally taken to Mercy
Hospital via private vehicle for injuries, which police said could be
first- and second-degree burns. He was later transported to the
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics=92 burn unit.
The cause of the explosion,
believed to have occurred about 7:30 a.m., was not immediately
explained.
The blast was not immediately
reported to police, who responded to the scene at 8:21 a.m. after a
passerby saw the vehicle and damaged caused by the explosion - which
included a shattered windshield - and suspected a break-in
occurred.
Police said witnesses told them
Stille had intended to take the balloons to an off-campus location for
an educational activity.
Stille is a
coordinator for Hawk-Eyes on Science, an outreach program affiliated
with the department of physics and astronomy. Stille puts on programs
for school children doing scientific demonstrations, including exploding
balloons filled with hydrogen and oxygen.
Bruce McAvoy, the university=92s
Fire Safety Coordinator, the Iowa City Fire Department and the State
Fire Marshal=92s office assisted in investigating the
explosion.
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SAN JOSE, CA -- Firefighters responded to a possible hazardous
materials incident near San Jose State University today, a fire
department spokesman said.
The incident was reported
at 10:38 a.m. at the Campus Village parking garage, located at 355 S.
10th St., near a 10-story student housing apartment complex, Capt. Chuck
Rangel said.
An alarm went off in a
room containing a chlorine pump on the first level of the garage, Rangel
said. A pump that pushes chlorine to the fountain malfunctioned, causing
a strong odor and activating the alarm, Rangel said.
The garage was evacuated and occupants of the
apartment complex were ordered to shelter-in-place as a safety measure,
Rangel said.
One person was treated at
the scene for watery eyes.
-----------------------
NORTH SPRINGFIELD =97
Police say someone deliberately spilled more than 1,200 gallons of
diesel fuel from the pumps at Black River Produce Sunday morning,
letting the fuel reach the nearby Black River through a storm
drain.
Springfield Police Officer
Anthony Leonard said Monday that the incident was under investigation,
but he declined to say whether police already has a
suspect.
Leonard said the two hoses
from the diesel pump were left in such a way as to immediately raise
questions about the incident, and Leonard said it all but eliminated any
thought the incident was an accident.
=93I think this was an intentional and
malicious act by someone,=94 said Stephen Birge, co-owner of the firm.
=93It wasn=92t an accident. Someone turned on the pumps and let them
run.=94
Birge said he had no idea
of anyone who had a grudge against the company, saying it had been
=93months and months=94 since someone had lost their job
there.
-----------------------
A morning pool maintenance project turned into
an explosion in a residential Rockingham neighborhood
Tuesday.
Two were injured in a
blast ignited by a mixture of chlorine at a home in the 1000 block of
Morningside Drive. He son, Rodney Godwin, said his father was mixing
chlorine with water.
Neighbors said the
initial, powerful blast was followed by two smaller explosions. Two
helicopters were dispatched for the injured and landed at FirstHealth
Richmond Memorial=92s landing pad.
-----------------------
The the north side of the
Port of Brownsville was evacuated Monday as fire crews spent more than a
hour battling a large fire in two 19-foot fuel storage tanks that
contained fatty acid, Brownsville Fire Chief Lenny Perez
said.
Tankers and cargo trucks
lined the side of Highway 48 as they waited for fire crews to finish
their investigation. No injuries were reported.
Port spokesman Manuel Ortiz, said the fire
began at approximately 11 a.m. at the RTW Terminal, located off Chemical
Road. RTW Terminals is a liquid bulk storage facility.
More than 100 employees from various companies
were evacuated as a safety precaution while port police, firefighters
and U.S. Coast Guard responded to the fire. Authorities also implemented
a one-mile safety zone, keeping all incoming vessels out in the water
until the fire was contained.
-----------------------
ELYRIA =97 Firefighters
appear to have under control a fire that broke out today at 555 Garden
St., the same location that was the site of a massive explosion in 1993.
The company listed at that address is United Initiators
LLC.
The blaze involves organic
peroxides, according to scanner traffic from firefighters on the
scene.
A heavy black cloud hung
over that portion of Elyria for about half an hour, but the cloud =97
which witnesses reported seeing as far away as North Olmsted =97 is
dissipating, according to those on the scene. A fire truck continues to
spray the building with water.
-----------------------
Emergency crews remained
on the scene of a fuel tanker crash where thousands of gallons of
gasoline have spilled onto the roadway Monday morning in southwest
suburban Summit.
The crash happened near
the intersection of Route 171 and Archer Road, according to a police
dispatcher from the neighboring village of McCook, who confirmed
emergency crews from the village have been asked to assist with the
resulting fuel spill.
McCook Police were
notified about 12:40 a.m. Monday, the dispatcher said.
Unconfirmed dispatch reports indicated 3500
gallons of unleaded gasoline was spilled in a rollover crash by a fuel
tanker.
-----------------------
Investigators say an investment in safety
helped contain a massive fire at a local chemical facility. The smoke
could be seen for miles, the damage was extensive, but not one person
was hurt when a tank full of mineral spirits exploded Friday afternoon
at Americhem Sales in Mason. Sheriff's officials say it's all because
new safety measures in place worked. It's a dangerous business- storing
and transporting flammable chemicals. Investigators are trying to figure
out why a tanker unloading mineral spirits at Americhem Sales
Corporation suddenly exploded.
Sgt. Robert Ott, Ingham Co. Emergency Mgmt.: "It's really just an
accident. We're really fortunate that nobody got hurt and nobody
died."
The driver unloading the
chemical was not injured. Company officials say his training and a
4-million dollar investment in a top notch safety system saved his life
and many others.
Bruce Whetter, President,
Americhem Sales Corp.: "This could have been devastating. Had this
facility been what it was 13 years ago, you would have had fatalities,
you would have had a situation here where this whole complex would be
gone, because the solvents, storage tanks were within feet of the
building."
-----------------------
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) =97
Authorities in Wichita blame the hot weather for a chemical spill
involving a substance used to make fake fingernails.
Hazmat crews responded at mid-morning on Monday
after the chemical, called methyl methacrylate (meth-AK'-ruh-layt),
expanded in the heat and burst out of a barrel.
KSNW-TV reports one firefighter was injured
when he slipped and fell into the chemical after being detoxed. Sedgwick
County health officials were monitoring the air quality, and nearby
businesses were told to shut off their air conditioning and keep windows
closed.
County Fire Department
Division Chief Carl Cox says methyl methacrylate is heat-sensitive. Cox
says it's normally a liquid but hardens into a gelatin-like material at
high temperatures.
About 100 gallons of the
chemical spilled.
-----------------------
NORTH NAPLES: Seven people were taken to the
hospital after a chemical leak at a North Naples business Monday
morning.
Firefighters say some kind
of a sulphuric acid mixture leaked at Moog Techtron Corp at 1400 Rail
Head Boulevard around 10 a.m.
Sixty people inside the
building at the time were evacuated as HAZMAT crews worked to deal with
the leak.
"The employees, when they
got inside this morning, everything was cool... then all the sudden,
somewhere, some vapors came up. They stared getting lightheaded and
dizzy," said Chief Orly Stolts of the North Naples Fire
Department.
Jerry
Burns, Operations Manager at the business, which cleans computer
parts, reported an ammonia smell shortly after getting to
work.
He said the chemical leak
happened when a employee there was cleaning out some containers. But
Monday, that routine job turned into a hectic scene.
-----------------------
A warning for people with their own pools:
Don't mix the chemicals you use to keep it clean.
A Bradford, N.H., man did just that on
Friday. Perry Teele mixed two different kinds of pool chemicals, causing
an explosion. Both he and his granddaughter, who was nearby, sustained
minor injuries.
Teele says the explosion
sounded like a rifle shot, and that's what it felt like, but luckily
family members were able to wash the chlorine off of him fast enough to
prevent chemical burns.
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