- Chemical Health & Environmental Management Information System -
Old School Chemicals Explode, No Injuries
| Location | Date of Incident | |||
| Rogersville, TN, United States | 3/28/2002 | |||
| Date of Report Update | ||||
| 4/2/2002 - 1:46 PM | ||||
| Incident Types | Location Types | |||
| -
Explosion - Fire |
Fixed Facility | |||
| Evacuations | Injuries | Fatalities | ||
| None reported | None | None | ||
| Chemicals Involved | ||||
| -
Plus additional chemicals not specied or identified - Potassium cyanide - Sodium |
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| Description or Latest Development | ||||
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----- State regulators are satisfied with the handling of a fire and explosion involving more than 100 bottles of old high school chemistry lab chemicals. No one was injured in the Thursday (3/28/2002) mishap, but the final bill for cleaning up the accident could exceed $100,000. The chemicals, including potassium cyanide and elemental sodium, had been stored for years in unlabeled bottles in a maintenance building near the Hawkins County schools central office. Workers were moving them to a truck for disposal Thursday when some of the bottles apparently leaked, allowing the chemicals to mix and start a fire. When firefighters doused the smoldering truck, the water reacted with the chemicals and caused the explosion. Up to 12,000 gallons of potentially contaminated water runoff had to be collected from storm sewers as part of the cleanup. Some 22 specially designed drums were used to collect the old chemicals. The truck had to be crushed and hauled off as hazardous waste, along with some of the asphalt and soil from the area. -----
Old chemistry lab chemicals found in a Hawkins County school maintenance building caught fire and exploded as they were loaded into a pickup truck for disposal, authorities said. No one was injured in the Thursday afternoon incident behind the school district's central office and no chemical pollutants reached a nearby stream or sewer system, Assistant Fire Chief David Jackson said. But streets in the area remained closed Friday as the cleanup continued at a painstakingly slow pace because at least some of the many unlabeled bottles contained cyanide-based compounds. "We have a cleanup contractor on site and they are having to take each individual bottle and put it into its own little containment bucket with a lid,'' Jackson said. The chemicals were being loaded into a pickup truck that would to take them for disposal Monday. Authorities believe some of the bottles may have broken or opened as they were moved and the chemicals mixed causing a fire. Responding
firefighters hosed the smoldering truck. That touched off an explosion
when the chemicals apparently reacted with the water, Jackson
said.
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| Sources (* indicates the original source) | Source Details | |||
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03-29-02
1154EST; 04-02-02 1158EST |
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