Blast Critically Burns Worker : Chemical Fumes Cause Evacuation of Nearby Area

A 29-year-old worker suffered critical burns Friday at a Scripps Ranch manufacturing plant when chemicals he was handling exploded. Several other workers and firefighters were hospitalized with respiratory and eye irritations from the chemicals and a one-block area of the Scripps Ranch Industrial Park was evacuated as a precaution.

John Goik was reported in critical condition Friday night with third-degree burns over 95%of his body, said a spokesman at the UCSD Medical Center, where Goik was airlifted by Life Flight helicopter after the 1:31 p.m. accident. Goik is employed at Fluid Systems, a division of UOP Inc., which is a subsidiary of The Signal Cos.

Goik was engulfed in flames when three types of chemical compounds he was transferring into a 55-gallon drum from a coating machine exploded, San Diego Fire Department spokesman Logan Bellows said. The machine makes desalination membranes used in water filtering systems.

Firefighters from the Scripps Ranch station were the first of more than 65 to arrive at the plant and found the blackened Goik. The plant’s sprinkler system had suppressed the fire but the water had mixed with the chemicals, causing them to disperse along with heavy black smoke. Firefighters said the smoke obscured their vision almost completely when they first entered the room containing the machine.

Of the 100 workers at the plant at the time of the explosion, three--who were in the room where it happened--were evacuated to area hospitals as a precautionary measure because they were exposed directly to the smoke, Bellows said. In addition, about a dozen firefighters and police officers were held for observation at various hospitals after health officers determined that they had been exposed to the fouled air inside the plant.

“The chemicals, when mixed with water, can cause irritation of the eye, skin and respiratory tract up to 72 hours if there is direct exposure,” Dr. Jake Jacoby, Life Flight physician, said at the scene. “If there is no direct exposure and no immediate symptoms, then people probably can go home.”

County workers trained in handling hazardous materials were dispatched to the plant to determine the spread of the chemicals. Police officials had ordered the evacuation of buildings up to 1,000 feet east of the Fluid Systems plant because the extent of the danger from the chemical smoke was unknown. However, it was determined about two hours after the explosion that there had been no spread. Bellows identified the chemicals as naphtha, polyvinyl alcohol and toluene-2, 4-diisocyanate, or TDI.

When news of the blast first became known, with the extent of chemical contamination unknown, anxious parents descended on police roadblocks along Business Park Road, wanting to check their children attending the Scripps Montessori School one block west of the plant.

Police decided to evacuate students to an area where the parents could pick them up without causing traffic disruptions for ambulances and other emergency equipment.

The 1,700 students at Wangerheim Junior High School, more than a mile west of the plant across Interstate 15, were also evacuated as a precaution when some initial reports included fears of a smoke cloud drifting into the area.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation, Bellows said.