Chem refinery ignites almost right outside my house!

[TaraIkeda]

Man this was figgin scary, I watched it from right down the street:

Explosion at Sun Oil refinery | 6abc.com - 5/18/09 - Philadelphia News - 6abc.com

(I link to ABC as it gives the best coverage in the area)

It started around 10:00PM, and for the last 2 hours nothing but fire and chaos.
I can say that around 10:09PM EST is when it started, when we heard a big BOOM!
And our house shook for about a second.
It was like a bloody bomb went off, I went outside to see what happened and was at first wondering what was going on.
Going outside was nothing out of the usual in this area, the refinery has been burning up **** for practically 100 years now.
At night seeing bright orange lights in the skies is not out of the ordinary.
But not tonight, because tonight is when quite literally all hell broke loose.
It was like watching fireworks, there were two maybe more bangs afterwards, I mainly heard the two initial blasts from this event.
It was like someone was shooting a cannon, not ear splitting but certainly enough to get one riled.
But the big scary bit of the whole thing is that I could hear something pounding in the background, it was rhythmic like the sound of a locomotive.
It was intense, it was like the refinery was a ticking time bomb ready to go off.
It was nightmarish at a distance, and we knew that something was wrong when at least five different fire sirens went off.
At best we hear one or two, but tonight it was way more then that.
Now luckily no one was hurt so far but there is something worse then an explosion out there in the air.
Ethylene Oxide, a product used to make things like detergents and foam, and is a step away from Ethylene glycol...
Antifreeze for those less chemically knowledgeable then I.
Now lucky for me the toxic cloud has blown away from my house, the winds blew towards New Jersey.
But still I am worried, as these are the symptoms of Ethylene Oxide poisoning:
(From Wikipedia)
"Headache and dizziness, progressing with increasing exposure to convulsions, seizure and coma. It is also an irritant to skin and the respiratory tract, and inhaling the vapors may cause the lungs to fill with fluid several hours after exposure.

Ethylene oxide is usually stored as a pressurized or refrigerated liquid. At room temperature and pressure, it rapidly evaporates, potentially causing frostbite in cases of skin exposure.

Laboratory animals exposed to ethylene oxide for their entire lives have had a higher incidence of liver cancer. However, studies on human beings who have worked with ethylene oxide for extended periods and may have experienced low doses during that time have found no increase in cancer risk. Chronic ethylene oxide exposure may increase the risk of cataracts in humans.

In animals, ethylene-oxide can cause numerous reproductive effects, including mutations and a higher rate of miscarriages. Its reproductive effects on humans have not been well studied, but it is considered probable that ethylene oxide exposure has similar effects on human reproduction."

Now I did get a little headache but I think it was most likely from the excitement.
Still worry is in high supply here, no evacuations were called for my general area but nothing suggested any immediate danger...

[oldcpu]

Sorry to read about the fire. Be certain to stay safe !!

[consused]

Well if you hadn't mentioned moving to Hardy... Seriously, I am sure all here are glad you survived the bang. Why ethylene oxide, the news article only mentioned ethylene, you maybe thinking it's a byproduct of the explosion? If it has to be stored under pressure as a liquid (like liquid nitrogen is), chances are it's long gone by fast evaporation from your area, and way up into the atmosphere. I would be more worried about any persistant clouds of thick grey/black smoke from burning oil/petrol if they were hanging over your area. That could contain many other toxic chemicals. That's why they need to continue to monitor the air quality in the area.

[TaraIkeda]

No it was ethylene oxide according to the main reports in the area.
But yes it seems long gone, even in New Jersey where all this junk blew at it seems fine.
But man it was still scary

[JopSway]

Oh, nice. Now I know how it will eventually look like when the refinery (among several other dangerous industries in the same area) that is close to my home, and I mean close, not even 2 miles away, blows up.

I'm glad you all (the thousands of people around) are safe.

[caf4926]

If anything Big goes up near us it's Nuclear - Bye Bye

[microchip8]

too bad you didn't film it and posted on youtube

[growbag]

"Headache and dizziness, progressing with increasing exposure to convulsions, seizure and coma. It is also an irritant to skin and the respiratory tract, and inhaling the vapors may cause the lungs to fill with fluid several hours after exposure."

I knew a girl who had the same effects on me, I think I married her .

[TaraIkeda]

Well so far there has not been much more news, but it almost seems like a cover up, as news sites are now saying contrary info then what was reported.
I dunno, we could be caught in a toxic tout case here, as at 11 last night they said that it was in fact Ethylene oxide, but now thy seem to be retracting those statements.
But we wont know till people become seriously ill, wheres Erin Brockovich when you need her?

[CloudLion_ca]

Originally Posted by TaraIkeda

Well so far there has not been much more news, but it almost seems like a cover up, as news sites are now saying contrary info then what was reported.
I dunno, we could be caught in a toxic tout case here, as at 11 last night they said that it was in fact Ethylene oxide, but now thy seem to be retracting those statements.
But we wont know till people become seriously ill, wheres Erin Brockovich when you need her?

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