No one was injured in a late night explosion and fire last month at a Pensacola chemical plant that is said to have caused $1 million in damages and is being investigated by the Florida State Fire Marshal. Crews took approximately 30 minutes to extinguish the fire.
The explosion occurred at Reichhold Chemicals Plant in one of the facility’s “tank farms”, a collection of holding tanks surrounded by a containment wall. According to the Pensacola location’s Plant Manager, Bill Torrence, the tank farm includes 11 tanks that average 3,000 gallons. He also indicated that nine of those tanks were empty. However, Torrence did not comment as to whether or not any of the chemicals from the filled tanks were involved in the fire. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) toxic release inventory, the plant managed over 980,000 pounds of hazardous chemicals in 2011, but reports indicate that the facility has not yet informed the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) which chemicals were near the fire.
According to its website, Reichhold Chemicals is, “one of the world’s largest suppliers of unsaturated polyester resins for composites and a leading supplier of coating resins for a wide variety of markets and applications.” Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, the company owns 20 manufacturing sites and five technology centers located around the world. The Pensacola facility employs approximately 50 people and operates 24 hours a day.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.