EVANSVILLE, Ind. An asphalt tank at a plant owned by Rason Asphalt exploded in the early afternoon, causing a loud blast that rattled nearby homes. The employee suffered minor burns, and the tank lid was blown into the air and landed 150 yard away. Blast from rail cars carrying gasoline, coal and petroleum product ignited a fire that could take days to put out. ET). This story has been shared 128,919 times. A helicopter ambulance was waiting to take him to a hospital in Dallas, but with his clothes covered in asphalt, they decided against it out of fear that the fumes from Chambers clothes and body would overtake the pilot, Slovak said. When vapors above a certain concentration come into contact with an ignition source, Rosselot said, thats when explosions can happen. 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Harvey Patel was eating lunch inside the Budget Inn Ennis on April 23, 2018 when he felt a shockwave rattle the building. Get a daily email of our original, groundbreaking stories written by our national network of award-winning reporters. He said that all other personnel at the facility, which houses a chemical plant, an olefins plant and a 560,500 barrel-per-day oil refinery, according to Reuters, had been accounted for. If you have the contamination of higher flash point liquids with lower flash point liquids or the deliberate use of additives and youre not aware of what its doing to the tank vapor space, that could potentially be a hazardous situation, Zalosh said. The explosion happened just before 8 p.m. when workers a 2018 explosion at an oil refinery in Superior. Thus, the potential of asphalt additives to influence the formation of pyrophoric materials in an asphalt storage tank cannot be ruled out.. A construction crew was working with explosives to extract material when the explosion occurred. Our #1 newsletter delivers the weeks climate and energy news our original stories and top headlines from around the web. She has also reported for ProPublica, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. Vaggelis Kousioras - stringer, AP. The county has previously sued ExxonMobil, accusing the company of violating the federal Clean Air Act. BAGHDAD (AP) A gas tanker exploded near a soccer field in northeastern Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 10 others, according to security officials. It was later revealed that there was in fact a construction site explosion in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In that case, it turned out the refinery had previously stored other, more volatile materials in the tank, and small amounts had remained and mixed in with the carbon black, leading to a build up of vapors inside the tank. The presence of these higher volatility molecules means that the concentrations of vapors in the tanks are higher than they used to be, said Rosselot. It is also a possibility it may have happened on the other side of the border. Harley said she was personally concerned about the potential impact incidents like this one and the fire in 2019 could potentially have on air quality. Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Five days after a home exploded in Westworth Village, Atmos Energy said there was "no evidence" to suggest its system was involved. Unlike pyrophoric explosions, these explosions were characterized by the use of an ignition source, like a torch, that then lit nearby vapors on fire, triggering an explosion in the tank. Almost instantly, the tank he was standing on exploded. In these cases, it is unclear whether the workers did. RELATED: Explosion rocks mysterious Georgia monument called satanic by some, America's Stonehenge by others. NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) President Joe Biden said Wednesday it was unlikely that a missile that killed two in NATO-ally Poland was fired from Russia, but he pledged support for Poland's investigation into what it had called a Russian-made missile. / CBS/AP. Engineering experts say that such seemingly spontaneous explosions can be caused by the formation of whats known as pyrophoric material. The word pyrophoric comes from the Greek fire-bearing and means capable of igniting spontaneously upon exposure to oxygen. Instead, they are mixed with heavy fuels like asphalt or No. Bomb techs with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department responded to reports of an explosion Sunday morning in Palmdale, officials said. One of the asphalt tanks at the plant had been damaged and needed to be demolished, and the 32-year-old foreman was part of a five-man crew of contractors charged with getting it done. Police have said that the two blasts that rocked Austin, Texas, today are related to a similar one that occurred on March 2. 6 fuel oil has a lower flash pointcompanies list it between 140F and 200Fand is stored around 130F. Laboratory tests have shown that addition of only three volume percent of heptane to Number 6 fuel oil, transformer oil, and asphalt, causes flash point reductions of between 60C and 137C, he wrote in the 1997 study. Please be aware that there is a mandatory evacuation for everyone within a 1/2 mile of the TPC plant in Port Neches. Texas has seen multiple petrochemical industry blazes this year, including a March fire that burned for days near Houston and another that killed a worker at a plant in nearby Crosby. Plano Fire MADISON, Wis. (AP) Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Monday against a milling company for multiple violations at a plant that was the scene of a fatal explosion five years ago. The soldiers were traveling in an army vehicle a day earlier in the Makhmour district when an explosive device detonated, the state Iraqi News Agency reported. MAP EMAIL A section of the five-story building in the town of Tymovskoye collapsed after a gas cylinder exploded in one of the apartments at around 5:30 a.m. NEWFANE, Vt. (AP) A man was found dead in a home explosion and fire in the southern Vermont town of Newfane early Friday morning, state police said. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The first 11 cars of the train were filled with gasoline, coal and petroleum products, causing the initial explosion and fueling a fire that was still burning Tuesday evening, White said. By The Associated Press. Firefighters who arrived at the scene managed to contain the flames, Fox affiliate KRIV reported. One Twitter user recorded feeling the concussion from the explosion 25 miles away. For more on this story, follow Erica Simon on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. ABC-7 reported that police and fire officials could not explain the Dan Gearinos habit-forming weekly take on how to understand the energy transformation reshaping our world. ISLAMABAD (AP) A hotel catering to foreign visitors in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul was attacked Monday and three of the assailants were killed, a Taliban official said. HARRIS COUNTY, Texas An explosion at an ExxonMobil plant in Texas injured four people early Thursday, according to the Harris County Sheriffs Office. Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to a 10:21 a.m. call of a natural gas odor at 5726 Highland Hills Road in South Dallas, officials there said Wednesday. (AP) A body was found in a Maryland garden-style apartment building a day after an explosion and fire there and investigators are looking into the possibility of a criminal, intentional act, officials announced late Thursday. A car further down the train filled with phosphoric acid solution was unhooked and moved to safety before it could be ignited by the burning fuel cars, and a specialized fire crew sent from BNSF arrived with heavy equipment to extinguish the blaze. She joined InsideClimate in the fall of 2013, after helping produce documentaries and interactives for the PBS show Frontline since 2010 with 2over10 Media. Though there were workers at the plant at the time, no one was injured. In that incident, more than 60 people were sent for medical evaluation following the blast. Download the NBC News app for breaking news, "They have got a lot of people working on it," White said Tuesday evening. But over the last 30 years, companies have increasingly used additives to enhance the products, changing their makeup. An earlier version of this article incorrectly described how gasoline vapors are controlled in storage tanks. MEXICO CITY (AP) Authorities in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz said 19 people were injured where a pipeline carrying ethane gas exploded. As black smoke wafted from the nearby tank, two men ran over and let Slovak know that someone was missing. 6, resulting in changes to the way the products performand what they emit. A fire burns at ExxonMobil's refinery in Baytown, Texas, on Dec. 23, 2021. "Plano Fire-Rescue is working diligently to determine the cause of the blast. "I didnt know what it was. Carl Bradley Johansson, 64, of Newport Beach also was sentenced for tax evasion and for using fraud to receive more than $954,000 in COVID-19 relief money, according to the U.S. MORGANTOWN, Pa. (AP) A furnace explosion damaged the roof of a titanium plant in southeastern Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving Day, but no one was injured, authorities said. It is a colorless gas with a gasoline-like odor, used to produce synthetic rubber products like tires, plastics and other chemicals. Officials say firefighters were called to Trinity Hospital shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday where the explosion and subsequent fire and smoke caused patients and staff to evacuate the third floor. These materials are more volatile, can cause greater emissions and become explosive at lower temperatures than asphalt without the additives. ", Tim Fitzsimons is a reporter for NBC News. Gasoline is well known to be a volatile liquid and consequently, gasoline vapors are controlled using an internal floating roof to keep oxygen out and the vapors in, averting potential explosions. But additives are not necessary for a pyrophoric explosion to occur. BERLIN (AP) Nine men suspected of involvement in blowing up dozens of cash machines in Germany and stealing some 5.2 million euros (nearly $5.7 million) have been arrested in the Netherlands and Belgium, German authorities said Thursday. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the webs top headlines deliver the full story, for free. The tripwire set off the explosive device that was placed near a fence at 8:32 p.m. Sunday, police said. "We have multiple calls reporting a loud boom and we have multiple units investigating at all the different locations callers reported," Enrique Dueas-Aguilar with the El Paso Fire Department told The US Sun. No injuries were reported. These additives are often proprietary chemicals or lighter hydrocarbons that would normally be further refined into diesel. The impact sent debris flying through the air as frightened homeowners scrambled for cover. TOWN OF MAPLE GROVE, Wis. (AP) Sheriff's investigators in Wisconsin are willing to forgo any possible underage drinking violations in order to get more information about a bonfire explosion that injured more than a dozen people, including some critically, officials said Tuesday. He ran out of the building to see what had happened. More such explosions have probably gone unreported, said Kirsten Rosselot, a chemical engineer and the owner of Process Profiles, an environmental consulting firm, who has studied this type of tank. Long-term exposure has been associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer, and can damage the nervous system. A large explosion was reported early Thursday at an Exxon/Mobile refinery in Baytown, Texas, after what local sheriffs deputies called a major industrial accident. At least four people were injured, according to the Harris County Sheriffs Office.