Drone Photo
The factory, after the explosion.
Emergency crews were on the scene mid-day Thursday of an explosion at a chemical plant off State Street near the Hamden border in the Cedar Hill neighborhood.
The explosion was reported at around 11:30 a.m. at the former H. Krevit & Co., now known as Chlor-Alkali, at 73 Welton St.
It was originally reported as a hydrogen gas explosion. Then it turned out the explosion stemmed from a natural gas leak in a pipe connected to a heating unit inside the plant had exploded, officials said. Then, later Thursday, officials backtracked again. Now they’re saying they don’t know exactly what happened yet. Representatives of the state fire marshal’s office and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrived to help find answers.
The explosion ripped out a back wall. It blew debris onto the Amtrak train tracks, temporarily stopped service to Hartford until crews cleared the wau.
The Chlor-Alkali building was evacuated, and everyone got out safely, according to Fire Chief John Alston Jr.
The explosion also ruptured a container that had sodium bisulfate in it, Alston said. The fire department’s hazmat crew entered the building and determined that the chemical was confined to a pit around a storage container.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency cited the company in 2011 for failing to have a risk management or spill management plan in violation of the Clear Air Act. The company had to pay a $12,626 penalty and buy $36,056 of emergency response equipment for the fire department.so it could deal with chemical emergencies — like the one on Thursday.
First lets make this clear that this company MAKES chlorine on site they labeled it as the "green" thing to do.......and YOU ALL BOUGHT IT because the word green was used. Reality it is now far more dangerous because instead of just storing it there we make it there. And just for a reality check the read circle at this link is the area that will be affected if the chlorine was to have been part of today's disaster. http://usactions.greenpeace.org/chemicals/map/?action=show_plant&chemicalplant_id=190
But now they want to EXPAND on River street!! And they will label it as green and you will all ok it. When chlorine leaks it will burn your lungs till you die....the people in Guildford will just have lung damage. We meet with the old owner and asked for a early warning system because the LAST LEAK the people that lived around it were NOT NOTIFIED dispite the fact that our emergency manager said they were! THEY WERE NOT. and again the people that lived around it called me and others in the community to find out what was happening because they were NOT NOTIFIED IN ANY WAY THAT CHEMICALS were burning.
Also remember that the City of New Haven get money from Homeland Security because of this company. Remember it takes little to kill the whole city....and this place make that possible. So close your eyes and pretend it is not a bad thing to have a chlorine because this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster will not happen in New Haven...because this company, as they said to us at the last meeting we had with them..."we never have accidents" well just the one or two in the past years.