Chemical plant at Moerdijk exploded (1 Viewer)

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True. After posting, I started thinking about a liquid-fire, such as gasoline, which would float on the water. Well, I'm several thousand miles away from the incident, so no sense in armchair-quarterbacking. Gotta trust the guys on the scene.
 
Hi there.
The fire was under control at 02.15 this night. The firemen used a "foam-blanket" (if I translate it correctly) to extinguish the fire or. For this they used a firetrucks that came from Woensdrecht en Eindhoven airforce bases (
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLjqMR8tQm8). Water was not possible to use as there were mostly liquid chemicals present. Rain was bad because all that stuff would come back to earth before it could dillute itself in the air. You don't want that stuff concentrated on the ground. We're allowed to open the windows again, so I guess it went well. The ditches are polluted by chemicals and have a reddish colour (seen on tv) and they are pumping that away as we speak. The cleaning will take a few weeks. There's a small youtube movie of the foam-blanket (
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6MukjWGF8Y)
In the end we didn't have much problems here in Dordrecht. Went to sleep at 24.00 after the first foam-blanket was successful. When opening the door, there is a slight smell like fireworks in the air, which comes from the fire, I guess.
 
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Glad you're ok, Marcel. Just picked up on this thread - looks like a nasty incident. Keep breathing through your ears just in case!!
 
Marcel, Fist and foremost I'm glad you and yours are OK. The foam (nitrogen gas + detergent) cuts off the oxygen supply to the fires and floats across the surface. Do you know where your town gets its water supply from? I'd be very cautious about ground water supplies. Hopefully they will remove contaminated soil as well as just the water.
 
Good news your'e safe...stay that way and dont do nuttin stoopid !!!!
 
Marcel, Fist and foremost I'm glad you and yours are OK. The foam (nitrogen gas + detergent) cuts off the oxygen supply to the fires and floats across the surface. Do you know where your town gets its water supply from? I'd be very cautious about ground water supplies. Hopefully they will remove contaminated soil as well as just the water.

The fire was across the river (Hollands Diep) to the south west. Here we get water from a bunch of water reservoirs in the north of the island. Read that the stopped pumping water from those reservoirs as they fear it's contaminated by the ash. See the google-maps picture below.
 

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Marcel, anything that falls on the ground eventually ends up in the water supply one way or another. The rain was a plus in that it washed the air and limited the range of contamination but a minus in that it concentrated the contamination more locally.
so water, milk, fresh local fruits/vegetables could all be effected
 
But how do I use bottled water to shower or do the dishes? We'll just have to hope and prey that the water company know what they're doing and that the water is clean I'm afraid.
Won't eat vegetables from the garden it's winter, so there isn't much. We don't have our own cows, so milk will come from all over the country to the supermarket. Not a problem there either.
Hugh, the basin is not that far, about 20 km/12 miles. The pollution is at least as far as Gouda, about 60 km/40 miles away. The wind was from the south/south-west, so it probably flew over the basin.
 
But how do I use bottled water to shower or do the dishes? We'll just have to hope and prey that the water company know what they're doing and that the water is clean I'm afraid.

Sponge-bath! Had to do that on occasion when typhoons would blow through Guam, back when Dad was stationed over there. As for dishes....we'd switch to paper plates and plastic silverware for awhile.
 
We'll try.
Well, that the stuff wasn't harmless can be read in the following (sorry for the translation, it's done with google translation:
Moerdijk fire dozens of aid workers sick

Dozens of officers, firefighters and ambulance staff involved in the fire in Moerdijk suffer health problems.

(AP) - Dozens of officers, firefighters and ambulance staff involved in the fire in Moerdijk suffer health problems. They have stinging eyes, skin and respiratory irritation. The police opened an internal investigation into the complaints, the AD writes Saturday.

Besides the workers have also reported approximately 150 people with medical complaints after the fire. Whatever the complaints in this group is unclear.

Already it appears that workers at the chemical company fire Chemie-Pack in the toxic fumes have been. Control rooms normally ensure that emergency stay from the smoke. It examines whether mistakes have been made.

Probably also have agents walked through the heavily contaminated firefighting water. Friday it was announced that the run-off contains carcinogens.

The official line remains that there is no real threat to the environment was through the fire and smoke. If measurements are no dangerous levels of contaminants found. Friday there were experts know differently about thinking. According to one, there were many toxic substances in the smoke, but according to other substances were quickly dashed.

Saturday afternoon is a residents meeting in Moerdijk. Mayor Wim Denie explains the current state of affairs. Facing a Radio 1 spokesman said that the meeting at 13.00 best answer to all questions is given.
 
Marcel, things are going to be really tough for a while but officials always down-play problem to prevent panic. anything spilt on the ground ends up in the water. drink and cook with bottled water or install a reverse osmosis unit. Showers, use tepid water to prevent your pores from opening. our entire community needs to push local politicians for answers
I've trid to find out about K 13-004 but get nothing besides its IUPAC Name: 2-[[4-[3-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-2-hydroxypropoxy]benzoyl]amino]acetic acid
 
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