Fuel Explosion Is Attributed to a Repair
Thank you Jerry (Community Biofuels) for bringing this to our attention. Methanol vapors from waste glycerin in a mostly empty tank meets grinder.... Keep it safe out there folks.
June 5, 2005
Fuel Explosion Is Attributed to a Repair
By KAREEM FAHIM and JANON FISHER (nytimes.com)
City officials said yesterday that a spark from a grinding machine possibly caused the explosion that killed a 45-year-old contractor on Friday as he worked in the storage lot of a Staten Island company that makes environmentally friendly fuel.
The police said that the man, John Drury, of Little Silver, N.J., was apparently repairing a pinhole leak on an 8,000-gallon drum when it exploded. He was found dead at the scene, the police added.
A woman who answered the telephone yesterday at Mr. Drury's house declined to comment.
City officials said they had not yet determined what was in the tank that exploded.
But Thakoordeo Harnanan, who works as a production manager at the company, Environmental Alternatives, said that the tank Mr. Drury was trying to fix contained 1,400 gallons of glycerin. Mr. Harnanan said glycerin is a waste product of biodiesel fuel, which the company makes from soybean oil.
The business is located at 14 Van Street, in Mariners Harbor.
At the accident scene yesterday, representatives from various city agencies participated in the cleanup and investigation.
A spokesman for one of the agencies, the Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency would probably levy several fines against the company, because the owners had been storing about 1,000 gallons of methanol, several hundred gallons more than they were licensed to keep.
Mr. Harnanan said that the owner of Environmental Alternatives had purchased two storage tanks from a company owned by Mr. Drury's uncle, and that Mr. Drury had been sent to locate, and then fix, the leak.
"He was a gentleman with a soft tone," Mr. Harnanan said of Mr. Drury. "He liked to take his time doing things."
Mr. Harnanan said that his company didn't own a grinder, and that he assumed the one found in the wreckage had been used by Mr. Drury to smooth the storage tanks in preparation for applying a sealant.
"He alone knows what happened," he said.
June 5, 2005
Fuel Explosion Is Attributed to a Repair
By KAREEM FAHIM and JANON FISHER (nytimes.com)
City officials said yesterday that a spark from a grinding machine possibly caused the explosion that killed a 45-year-old contractor on Friday as he worked in the storage lot of a Staten Island company that makes environmentally friendly fuel.
The police said that the man, John Drury, of Little Silver, N.J., was apparently repairing a pinhole leak on an 8,000-gallon drum when it exploded. He was found dead at the scene, the police added.
A woman who answered the telephone yesterday at Mr. Drury's house declined to comment.
City officials said they had not yet determined what was in the tank that exploded.
But Thakoordeo Harnanan, who works as a production manager at the company, Environmental Alternatives, said that the tank Mr. Drury was trying to fix contained 1,400 gallons of glycerin. Mr. Harnanan said glycerin is a waste product of biodiesel fuel, which the company makes from soybean oil.
The business is located at 14 Van Street, in Mariners Harbor.
At the accident scene yesterday, representatives from various city agencies participated in the cleanup and investigation.
A spokesman for one of the agencies, the Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency would probably levy several fines against the company, because the owners had been storing about 1,000 gallons of methanol, several hundred gallons more than they were licensed to keep.
Mr. Harnanan said that the owner of Environmental Alternatives had purchased two storage tanks from a company owned by Mr. Drury's uncle, and that Mr. Drury had been sent to locate, and then fix, the leak.
"He was a gentleman with a soft tone," Mr. Harnanan said of Mr. Drury. "He liked to take his time doing things."
Mr. Harnanan said that his company didn't own a grinder, and that he assumed the one found in the wreckage had been used by Mr. Drury to smooth the storage tanks in preparation for applying a sealant.
"He alone knows what happened," he said.
posted by KK4HFJ at
10:01 AM
