Chemical Tank Blast at Fluor Sends 25 to Hospitals : Explosion: An air-conditioning accident causes minor eye and throat irritations but no danger to Irvine residents or the environment.
A small chemical tank connected to the Fluor Corp.’s air-conditioning system exploded Friday morning, briefly showering a maintenance area with granules of bromine and chlorine tablets and sending 25 workers to local hospitals with minor eye and throat irritations.
The explosion blew apart a 30-gallon tank used to clean water that feeds five air-chilling towers serving Fluor and other tenants at the Park Place office complex and provided some tense moments for company workers. But security and Orange County Fire Department officers said the 9:30 a.m. blast produced no toxic danger to area residents or the environment.
“I’ve been here for six years, and this is the first time something like this has ever happened,” said David J. Christensen, director of security for the complex at 3333 Michelson Drive. “Fortunately, there was nobody around, which was lucky for us.”
Christensen reported that most workers who were treated at hospitals returned to the complex by early afternoon, but many were sent home for the day.
The explosion, apparently audible only to those working within several yards of the tank, did not stop the air-conditioning system but did shut down the telephone switchboard serving the international engineering and construction giant.
Michele Davis, manager of Fluor’s telecommunications department, which is about 20 feet from where the blast occurred, said her division was closed about 10:15 a.m., after fumes from the explosion penetrated the switchboard room.
“I didn’t hear the explosion, but fumes were spreading quickly enough that the odor got into the switchboard room right away,” said Davis, who was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and released after being treated for watery eyes.
“I feel pretty good right now,” she said. “We’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”
Davis said that closure of the switchboard operation prevents calls from coming into the company and that Fluor receives 800 to 1,000 calls daily.
She said she hopes that Fluor “won’t lose any important clients because of it.”
Steve Avelar, 32, a service representative for Johnson Controls who was working at the plant Friday morning, said he heard the explosion, then saw a plume of smoke in the air. Fearing that someone was injured, he ran to the scene.
“I took my look and got out of there,” Avelar said. “I thought there could be another explosion. I thought for sure that someone was going to be hurt. Immediately, I felt sick . . . and I got out.”
Avelar and five others were taken to the Irvine Medical Center, where they were treated and released.
Fluor, a builder and designer of oil refineries and petrochemical plants worldwide, is a tenant in the Irvine complex, which is owned by the Trammell Crow Corp.
Christensen, who works for Trammell Crow, acknowledged that the tank is owned by his company.
“We’re just starting to launch the investigation right now,” Christensen said. “We’re at a loss right now to even speculate about the cause. . . . The tank for some reason just let go. We will look to see if anything was clogged, including valves.”
Christensen said the fiberglass tank, 3 1/2 feet tall and 13 to 15 inches in diameter, held a mixture of water and chlorine and bromine in tablet form.
He said the water circulates around the tablets to reduce the buildup of algae. The water then circulates through a chiller as part of the building’s air conditioning.
He said the tank is inspected weekly by the Los Alamitos-based Dexter Water Management Systems. Christensen said a Dexter representative was on the property Friday, but that inspector could not be reached for comment.
Patients brought to UCI Medical Center in Orange complained of eye and throat irritation, said hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff, who added that no serious respiratory ailments were found, so patients were treated and released.
The explosion left nearby structures behind Fluor’s main offices with a light dusting of white powder from the pulverized tablets. By late afternoon, a private waste disposal company was getting rid of the powder with brooms and vacuums.
Patrick Atrium, captain of the Orange County Fire Department’s hazardous materials unit, said that the explosion did not trigger a fire and that the surrounding area was not threatened.
Times staff writers Robert Elston, James M. Gomez, Ted Johnson, Lynda Natali, Jeffrey Perlman and Carla Rivera contributed to this report.
Irvine Tank Explosion About 25 employees at the Park Place office complex suffered minor eye and throat irritation after a small tank that purifies water for the air-conditioning system exploded, scattering the area with a chemical dust. Bromine and chlorine dust spread for about 30 feet around the site where the 3 1/2-foot-tall-water thank exploded. The chemicals were from pellets inside the tank, used to kill algae in the air-condition system’s water. They irritate eyes and mucus membranes in the throat and lungs of people.
