Official: Three dead in chemical plant explosion [In Jacksonville, Florida]

CNN ^ | 12/19/2007 | CNN

[Tulsa Ramjet]

..developing.

[michigander]

Explosion, Fire Rocks Northside

POSTED: 1:39 pm EST December 19, 2007
UPDATED: 2:50 pm EST December 19, 2007

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Dozens of fire-rescue crews and every hazardous-materials unit in Jacksonville are battling a large fire that resulted from an explosion of an industrial facility on Faye Road, just off state Road 9A north of Heckscher Drive.

A thick plume of black smoke and flames could be seen for miles around. Callers to Channel 4 described a flash, an explosion and a mushroom cloud about 1:30 p.m.

"There was like this tremendous boom like I've never heard in my life," said Shannon Story, who works nearby. "Everything shook in the building, the power went out, light bulbs fell from ceiling. We all evacuated as fast as we could."

Police have blocked traffic on Faye Road between Alta Drive and New Berlin Road and are evacuating the area.

"I saw this humongous, huge fire, flames," said a Channel 4 viewer named Beverly. "The flames must have went up 20 stories tall. It wasn't a moment that a mushroom cloud appeared."

Channel 4 was told the explosion was at T2 Labs, a chemical company that makes solvents and gasoline additives.

Thick, black smoke continues to billow from the fire an hour after the initial explosion. "The explosion rocked my house," Carlton Higginbotham said.

Hospitals were put on alert, but there has been no report yet of casualties.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Sounds like burn back caused by bridging in the feed silo, if that is the cause the operator is a dumb ass.***

If ther pulverizers ran out of coal causing hot air blowing up into the silo blame it on the ********coal handlers.

[Little Bill]

I hope so, I spent 40 years making Electricity. I would hate to see an operator make such a stupid mistake. My prayers for the injured.

[poobear]

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/printfullstory.aspx?storyid=98412

JEA Plant. Electrical.

[A. Morgan]

Not a Power Plant explosion... the explosion did knock two units off line! Those units are back up. per JAX TV 4

[Tulsa Ramjet]

"She says the smoke as a strange odor but that they have not yet been told to evacuate." Worker: "But senator, that plant cooling water!!" TK: "Need to work on my breast stroke, now that I have breasties. Could have used them awhile back."

[The Raven]

Not a power plant....

Channel 4 was told the explosion was at T2 Labs, a chemical company that makes solvents and gasoline additives. Thick, black smoke continues to billow from the fire more than one hour after the initial explosion.

[Little Bill]

Who is the person watching the amperage on the Pulverizers? The coal handlers just do what they are told, the guy on the board owns it.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Tuesday night? That means this isn’t really breaking news anymore now, is it?

[PAR35]

Ain’t no nukes near Jacksonville.

If you don't count King's Bay.

[wolfpat]

I meant commercial nukes. But you’re right. Although I was never in the Navy, I worked with enough of them such that I should have thought about that.

[tutstar]

it is t2labs.com they make gas additive
news is reporting they were mixing something for either ink solvent or something for paint....

building is leveled—not all people accounted for

jacksonville.com
firstcoastnews.com
news4jax.com
fox30online.com

[tutstar]

it’s not jea
see my previous post

[wolfpat]

Shades of Apex;
http://charlotte.injuryboard.com/toxic-hazardous-substances/thousands-evacuated-in-apex-chemical-fire.php

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Who is the person watching the amperage on the Pulverizers?***

Pulverizer amps have nothing to do with it. When the coal feeder runs out of coal the feeder trips. Then the pulverizer trips on no ignitors at low loads.

The Primary hot air then backs up into the feeder and into the silo unless there is coal in the silo throat to stop it. No coal in the silo means the hot air can ignite the coal dust and....Kaboom.

It is the coal handler’s job to make sure there is coal in the silos.

[tutstar]

they are only evacuation 1/2 mile radius

?

[Little Bill]

That had to be a pretty good hit, relays are set up to trip you, up or down based on conditions over time, generally very short, a couple percentages of unit speed, CPS plus amperage drop.

The best one was when I was BSing with the Control Room Supervisor. We were cruising a long at 350 MW on a hot summer night and some Customer, had his heart broken and gave a 345 line a Monica.

[Little Bill]

Everyone that has operated a Coal Fired Boiler KNOWS that you have to balance the Amperage among the pulverizers in service, work in vs work out. The secondary air provides propulsion and a drying effect to the coal and provides O2 for a fire.

Nothing guarantees that the instrumention is going to work. I spent five years as an an I&C supervisor If it can fail it will. The reason you have an operator in the room is to make sure it does not happen.

[deport]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/19/florida.explosion/index.html

Chemical Plant Blast...... Three confirmed dead

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Everyone that has operated a Coal Fired Boiler KNOWS that you have to balance the Amperage among the pulverizers in service, ***

Not so on this unit. Here we have B&W MPS-89 pulverizers with STOCK feeders, and amps depend on the particular load we have on that particular mill. Right now I am carrying lower loads on the top burner mills with lower amps because I don’t want to slag up the reheat area.
Lower mills are carrying higher loads with higher amps due to the heavier coal input into them.

B&W Boiler, 528 MW right now. Six mills in service.