Aviation-related Chemical Fire

On October 5 of last year, a chemical fire erupted at the EQ Industrial Services plant in Apex, N.C., a city about 15 miles southwest of Raleigh. The massive fire destroyed the facility and forced the evacuation of 16,000 residents (about half the population of the city). About 30 people were treated for respiratory problems following the fire. So, why am I writing about a fire that destroyed a plant in Apex, N.C. last year? Because the fire was aviation-related. No, the fire wasn't started by an airplane crashing into the building. Yesterday, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board stated that unspent oxygen generators (can you say ValuJet?) likely caused the rapid spread of the fire. The Associated Press reports that Robert Hall, the board's lead investigator into the fire at the EQ industrial plant, says at least 78 oxygen generators were found among the rubble of the fire. The board says Mobile Aerospace Engineering, Inc., an aircraft maintenance facility in Mobile, Alabama, placed the packaged, unspent generators in steel drums and shipped them to a hazardous waste facility in Birmingham, Alabama. The oxygen generators were then misidentified as general oxidizer waste and sent to Apex. "Apparently this aircraft maintenance facility had forgotten the lessons of ValuJet about expending these things," Hall said. "We're concerned that there might be somebody else out there that's not following the procedure. We have no knowledge of anybody out there, but we want to make sure this message is reiterated for the industry." The board issued an "urgent recommendation" -- only the third it has ever released. "If these devices are out in the hazmat waste stream ... we want to get the word out on that and make sure they are accounted for and expended before they're put into the hazmat waste stream," board member William B. Wark says. It sure was a lot of destruction caused by some unspent expired oxygen generators. To read the full story, click here. Thanks for reading! Joe Escobar