East Palestine OH Train Derailment & Major Fire 2/3/23

[DaveReinstein]

State Fire Marshal: East Palestine first responders most likely didn’t know hazardous substances were burning

The Ohio Fire Marshal said the firefighters who responded to the derailed train in East Palestine probably didn’t know there were extremely hazardous substances burning in the air around them.

www.wcpo.com

Disgraceful

 

[Capttomo]

State Fire Marshal: East Palestine first responders most likely didn’t know hazardous substances were burning

The Ohio Fire Marshal said the firefighters who responded to the derailed train in East Palestine probably didn’t know there were extremely hazardous substances burning in the air around them.

www.wcpo.com

State Fire Marshal Reardon thinks that firefighters on this incident should have been wearing hazmat suits???!!?! Even the generic - basic - non specific DOT ERG recommends structural firefighting gear and SCBA for fires involving the chemicals found at this incident - and that is the correct gear for first responder initial operations at this type of event. Wearing plastic or fluoroelastomer haz mat suits during the initial response phase would have resulted in shrink wrapped firefighters.

 

[AYoung]

I’m roughly 100 miles NW of this incident. I don’t think the FM means they should have been using Class A suits for this. I think they’re speaking to the lack of information in the beginning of the incident and the overall lack of updated PPE. This department’s yearly budget probably wouldn’t pay for one guy‘s salary at any of our departments. There’s also a distinct lack of training in that area, Ohio has a certification level for volunteers that is a total of 36 hours of training, yes it can be done on a long weekend.

 

[Capttomo]

The following are the results of a Polymerization Explosion of a rail car in Deer Park Texas in 1988. The product was Methyacrylic Acid. The explosion flattened a 5/8" Thick steel walled tank car weighing approx 60 tons. The explosion moved adjacent tank cars off their tracks. Notice that there was no BLEVE or fireball. This was a pressure release explosion (a giant pressure cooker) in which the monomer liquid inside the car began to polymerize inside the tank and give off heat, gas, and pressure. When the tank car ruptured, the liquid contents immediately transformed to a solid polymer upon contact with the air, as evidenced by the pink debris in the debris field. Pieces of the tank car including a multi ton tank end were hurled up to 500 yards away from the blast.

 

[entropychaser]

The following are the results of a Polymerization Explosion of a rail car in Deer Park Texas in 1988. The product was Methyacrylic Acid. The explosion flattened a 5/8" Thick steel walled tank car weighing approx 60 tons. The explosion moved adjacent tank cars off their tracks. Notice that there was no BLEVE or fireball. This was a pressure release explosion (a giant pressure cooker) in which the monomer liquid inside the car began to polymerize inside the tank and give off heat, gas, and pressure. When the tank car ruptured, the liquid contents immediately transformed to a solid polymer upon contact with the air, as evidenced by the pink debris in the debris field. Pieces of the tank car including a multi ton tank end were hurled up to 500 yards away from the blast. View attachment 32488View attachment 32489View attachment 32490View attachment 32491View attachment 32492

Note that the rail classification yard (Houston Belt & Terminal RR-probably) runs among high-voltage transmission lines.

Welcome to the Petrochemical Capital of the World! The road just past the explosion is Rohm & Hass Road. The chemical plant I worked at twenty years prior to this dust-up is just off the photo about 1500 feet to the right. Downtown Houston is seen in the distance.


Of interest, about 6000 feet behind the photographer is the San Jacinto Battleground. On April 21, 1836 General Santa Ana got payback and the cry "Remember the Alamo" was first heard. Nowadays, Santa Ana couldn't get near the place without a chemical company photo ID badge.

 

[raybrag]

And only about 30 miles north of the worst industrial accident in US history, and the world's largest non-nuclear explosion in April 1947, when the SS Grandcamp blew up with 2,300 TONS of ammonium nitrate, leveling Texas City, and killing 27 of the 28 members of the Texas City Fire Department (RIP). Here's a summary of it:

Texas City disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Everything is big in Texas.

 

[Capttomo]

Note that the rail classification yard (Houston Belt & Terminal RR-probably) runs among high-voltage transmission lines.

Welcome to the Petrochemical Capital of the World! The road just past the explosion is Rohm & Hass Road. The chemical plant I worked at twenty years prior to this dust-up is just off the photo about 1500 feet to the right. Downtown Houston is seen in the distance.


Of interest, about 6000 feet behind the photographer is the San Jacinto Battleground. On April 21, 1836 General Santa Ana got payback and the cry "Remember the Alamo" was first heard. Nowadays, Santa Ana couldn't get near the place without a chemical company photo ID badge.

Very nice post. Interesting! Thank you

 

[entropychaser]

Go another 12-15 miles south past Texas City to Galveston ( they had the third largest Mardi Gras Parade in the US) where on September 8, 1900 the Great Galveston Hurricane destroyed the place and killed 6,000 to 8,000 people- the largest natural disaster in US history.

In keeping with that theme, between Texas City and Deer Park is Seabrook. I was a vollie for a few years there around 1970, My very first run was an explosion on a yacht refueling at the Seabrook Shipyard on Clear Lake Channel next to the draw bridge that killed three people.

When I was a vollie, there were about three oldtimers still active who made the Texas City explosion. As I recall, they had nothing to say.

 

[scoobyd]

The President wanted to stop by and provide aid to the suffering citizens of EP, but he had to go to Ukraine instead.

 

[entropychaser]

This just keeps getting more entertaining (to some, but not all of us). I should have seen this coming.

Today, it was announced that all of the recovered liquids from the East Palestine derailment are being transported to Texas Molecular on Independence Parkway in Deer Park for proper disposal. I assume this will involve deep well injections. The nearby plant I worked at made vinyl chloride resin, so it's not like they're bringing it back home.

Their facilities are adjacent to the Vopak Terminal and rail yards which has 253 tanks holding an array of petrochemicals for mixing and shipping- mostly by ocean-going tanker. In March, 2019, Vopak had a fire that consumed the contents of seven tanks and lasted several days. It produced a smoke plume that dwarfed East Palestine, The TV weathermen followed it on radar almost to Austin. School got cancelled for two days, nobody hurt, and the EPA found nothing untoward. The usual environmental suspects were in a blind panic then. We know how that can be contagious.

If any national news media is following this story- FYI: The Monument Inn is further up the Parkway about a mile. Get a gin & tonic, oysters (crawfish season just opened too), chicken fried steak, pecan pie,; kick back and enjoy the sights and smells on the Houston Ship Channel.