Oxygen Generators Fueled N.C. Plant Fire

RALEIGH, N.C. --

Oxygen generators similar to those blamed for the 1996 ValuJet crash likely caused the rapid spread of a chemical fire that forced the evacuation of thousands last year, a federal agency said Wednesday.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a safety advisory to aircraft maintenance and hazardous waste storage workers out of concern the Alabama company that shipped the unspent and mislabeled devices also might have sent them elsewhere.

The board said Mobile Aerospace Engineering Inc., an aircraft maintenance facility in Mobile, Ala., placed the packaged, unspent generators in steel drums and shipped them to a hazardous waste facility in Birmingham, Ala.

The oxygen generators were then misidentified as general oxidizer waste and sent to Apex, the board said.

At least 78 oxygen generators were found among the rubble of the Oct. 5 fire that destroyed the EQ Industrial Services plant, said Robert Hall, the board's lead investigator into the fire at EQ Industrial Services in 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."

In addition to the safety advisory, the chemical board issued a rare "imminent hazard" advisory to Mobile Aerospace Engineering. The board said Mobile Aerospace removed the devices from aircraft and placed them in packaging materials used for new generators before they are installed.

Workers placed the packaged, unspent generators in steel drums and shipped them to PSC Allworth Inc., a hazardous waste facility in Birmingham, Ala., which then shipped them by truck to Apex, board officials said.

Chemical oxygen generators are used to provide supplemental oxygen in drop-down masks in case a commercial aircraft cabin depressurizes. Unexpended generators in the cargo hold of ValuJet Flight 592 were blamed for the 1996 crash that killed 110 people.

The next year, federal regulators said passenger airlines should no longer such generators as cargo. The National Transportation Safety Board also ruled that expired but fully functioning chemical oxygen generators should be expended before being transported.

Board investigators believe the Apex fire began in an area where pool chemicals and other material were stored; it then spread to an area where flammable wastes were kept. The massive blaze led city officials to ask 16,000 residents - about half the city about 15 miles southwest of Raleigh - to evacuate.

About 30 people were treated for respiratory problems in the hours after the fire.

The "urgent recommendation" issued by the Chemical Board is only the third it has ever released. The board is an independent federal agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents and makes recommendations to government agencies.

"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.

A message seeking comment from Mobile Aerospace Engineering was not immediately returned Wednesday.

(This version CORRECTS SUBS 14th graf to correct typo in `expended.')

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