ReportWire

Tag: hazardous material

  • South El Monte residents ordered to shelter in place as warehouse buildings burn

    [ad_1]

    Residents in South El Monte were ordered to shelter in place Wednesday afternoon as more than 100 firefighters worked to battle a massive blaze at a warehouse complex that sent a dark plume of smoke into the air and emitted an acrid chemical smell.

    Fire crews responded to the 2200 block of North Tyler Avenue at 2:32 p.m. where two adjacent concrete warehouse style buildings were on fire, according to L.A. County Fire Department spokesperson Keith Navarre.

    A total of 112 fire personnel were sent to the incident where they assumed a defensive position, surrounding the building with water spraying apparatuses, he said.

    Several explosions occurred inside the building while crews were on scene, the cause of which was not immediately clear, he said. Helicopter video from ABC7 captured sparks and smoke shooting into the air as the blasts rattled the buildings.

    Hazardous materials and urban search and rescue teams also responded to the scene, he said. Officials said metals were burning inside the warehouses, but did not specify what type of objects were on fire.

    “It’s going to be an incident that goes throughout the night because of the materials involved,” Navarre said. “We have heavy equipment here that’s going to help us break down the building and continue to put the fires out.”

    A shelter in place order was issued for residents in the immediate area of South El Monte around 4:40 p.m. and then expanded to include more nearby streets and part of Baldwin Hills . An updated map of areas of impacted by the order is available at protect.genasys.com.

    Residents were instructed to shut doors and windows, turn off heating and ventilation systems and stay indoors. By 6 p.m. the smoke had diminished, but orders remained in place “out of an abundance of caution,” Navarre said.

    Investigators have not determined what caused the fire.

    [ad_2]

    Clara Harter

    Source link

  • Crews battle hazardous fire on cargo ship in San Pedro, major emergency declared

    [ad_1]

    A major emergency was declared at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday night as 186 firefighters worked to combat a massive and stubborn blaze involving hazardous materials on a cargo ship, authorities said.

    An electrical fire was reported below deck of the 1,100-foot container ship 1 Henry Hudson at 6:38 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. An explosion rattled the boat just before 8 p.m., affecting power to lights and cranes, authorities said.

    Hazardous materials are in several of the cargo containers involved in the blaze and all firefighters are wearing protective suits and oxygen masks, according to LAFD. Specially trained hazardous materials crews are monitoring air quality as efforts continue to suppress the fire in the ship’s sub-levels.

    Marine crews are working to cool the outside of the ship to make conditions on the boat more tenable for firefighting crews. As of 8 p.m., incident command had instructed that no firefighting members go below deck.

    At that time progress on containment remained slow, according to LAFD. The ship did not appear to be sinking despite a large amount of water being used to fight the fire.

    Drones were being used to acquire thermal imaging of the blaze and assist the emergency response, authorities said.

    Earlier in the evening, authorities said six of the boat’s crew members were unaccounted for. At 8:30 p.m., LAFD confirmed that all 23 crew members had been found and safely assisted off the ship. No injuries have been reported.

    The California Highway Patrol announced at 10:30 p.m. that the Vincent Thomas Bridge, a main access point to the port’s terminals, would be closed until further notice due to the fire. Drivers are advised to avoid the area and follow detour routes.

    The U.S. Coast Guard also responded to the incident and established a safety perimeter of one nautical mile around the vessel.

    The cargo ship sails under the flag of Panama and arrived in the Port of L.A. on Wednesday after traveling from Tokyo, according to Vessel Finder.

    In a statement on X, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said the city is continuing to monitor the incident closely. Gov. Gavin Newsom was briefed on the incident and his office is coordinating with local authorities to support the emergency response, officials said.

    [ad_2]

    Clara Harter

    Source link

  • Tesla settles for $1.5 million after allegations of illegally disposing hazardous waste

    Tesla settles for $1.5 million after allegations of illegally disposing hazardous waste

    [ad_1]

    An environmental investigation by the San Francisco district attorney’s office that began in 2018 and spurred similar inquiries throughout the state concluded Thursday, when a San Joaquin County judge ordered Tesla to pay $1.5 million for improperly disposing of hazardous materials.

    The individual efforts turned into one combined civil environmental prosecution by 25 district attorneys from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and other counties into allegations that Tesla improperly disposed of used lead acid batteries, antifreeze, paint and electronic waste at its car service and energy centers throughout California.

    The electric vehicle giant was also placed on a five-year injunction, which includes training employees to properly dispose of hazardous materials. Tesla must also hire an outside contractor to audit some of its trash containers for hazardous waste.

    “While electric vehicles may benefit the environment, the manufacturing and servicing of these vehicles still generates many harmful waste streams,” San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “[Thursday’s] settlement against Tesla, Inc. serves to provide a cleaner environment for citizens throughout the state.”

    Tesla lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.

    In 2018, the San Francisco district attorney’s Environmental Division launched undercover inspections of trash containers at Tesla service departments. Investigators found that hazardous waste such as lubricating oils, brake cleaners, aerosols and contaminated debris were not properly disposed.

    In court documents, the plaintiffs allege that Tesla placed hazardous waste into “any trash container, dumpster, or compactor at the facilities” or improperly outsourced the materials to transfer stations and landfills not suited for hazardous waste.

    In Alameda County, inspectors found weld spatter waste, which sometimes contains copper, along with paint mix, used wipes with primer and other hazardous waste dumped into ordinary trash containers at Tesla’s Fremont factory.

    Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer and Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin both said in statements that their own inspections at Tesla facilities “found similar unlawful disposal.”

    Neither office responded to a Times request for elaboration on what was found and where.

    “A company that is supposedly environmentally friendly should know better than to illegally dump hazardous waste that threatens to do irreparable damage to our communities,” Spitzer said in a statement.

    Of the settlement money to be paid, $1.3 million will be split up among the 25 counties, while $200,000 pays for the cost of investigations.

    Alameda County is slated to take the largest share, $225,000. San Francisco and San Joaquin will each claim $200,000; San Diego, Orange and Riverside will get $100,000; Los Angeles, $15,000; and Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura, $10,000.

    [ad_2]

    Andrew J. Campa

    Source link

  • The long road ahead to fix the fire-damaged 10 Freeway

    The long road ahead to fix the fire-damaged 10 Freeway

    [ad_1]

    With traffic again flowing above, construction crews in hard hats and high-visibility vests are busy surveying the scene: the belly of the 10 Freeway in downtown L.A.

    Here, where earlier this month a massive fire scorched the roadway, large timber and steel structures have been erected to take the weight off seven rows of damaged concrete columns.

    But what is actually going on under the freeway?

    For all the accolades officials gave for reopening the 10 in days rather than weeks, state leaders have publicly said little about the precise damage caused by the fire, exactly how Caltrans plans to make fixes and how much the repairs will cost.

    Though the shored-up freeway is safe for drivers again, repairs for the damaged overpass will take months, officials said. None of the damaged columns that hold up the overpass east of Alameda Street have been repaired yet, according to Caltrans spokesperson Michael Comeaux.

    “Columns damaged by the fire will need to be repaired. The repair strategy may vary between individual columns depending on the extent of damage. The repairs will include the removal of any damaged concrete, patching of the damage, and wrapping the columns with steel casings,” Comeaux said in an email.

    Emergency crews raced to clear debris and hazardous materials after the Nov. 11 fire, which arson investigators believe was started intentionally on Caltrans property leased to a company that was subleasing it to a handful of small businesses. There, piles of wooden pallets were stored alongside combustible liquids, which was in violation of state regulations.

    In the following days, construction crews erected the shoring structures and road crews repaired damaged electrical systems, lane striping and signs on the freeway, and some damage to the freeway deck. Currently, engineers are developing a repair plan for the overpass, Comeaux said.

    But Caltrans has declined requests for an interview about the work involved to repair the stretch of freeway, which carries roughly 300,000 daily commuters.

    An engineer with Caltrans who was not authorized to speak publicly said forty-five columns show clear evidence of spalling, the technical term for the cracking and disintegration of concrete when it is exposed to extremely high temperatures. The heat evaporates water molecules inside the concrete, which makes the material weak and brittle.

    Construction crews will have to remove the damaged concrete from each column. In many cases, the engineer said, that damage extends to the reinforcing metal known as rebar that is embedded inside the concrete and spirals around vertical lengths extending from the foundation to the freeway overhead.

    Engineers have identified eight columns where the heat of the fire reached far deeper into the concrete. For those columns, crews will have to remove not only the compromised concrete but also the spiral of rebar, the engineer said.

    Once the damaged concrete and steel have been removed, the columns will be rebuilt, most likely with steel jackets similar to those used in seismic retrofits of bridge columns (an earthquake review in the 1990s did not lead to jackets being placed around the columns at this location). Grout or concrete will then be injected between the jacket and column.

    [ad_2]

    Nathan Solis, Thomas Curwen, Ashley Ahn

    Source link