Waste site blasts: evacuation

10 January 2005 00:01  [Source: ICB]

About 2000 residents of El Dorado, Arkansas, US, were evacuated on 2 January after a fire and explosions at the town’s Teris hazardous waste disposal facility.

No one was injured in the blasts and all of the residents had returned to their homes by Monday evening. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is monitoring air quality and sampling air at the site.

Teris incinerates hazardous waste using rotary kilns for solid incineration and thermal oxidation for liquid incineration. It typically processes mixed solvents, gas cylinders and batteries. It also handles ethyl chloride and trimethylamine, that are regulated under the EPA’s Risk Management Plan.

An employee tried to put out a small fire in one of the company’s two warehouses, but it quickly burned out of control. Emergency responders allowed the subsequent fires to burn themselves out. Fires and small explosions continued into Monday 3 January.

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