4 INJURED IN NEWARK, NEW JERSEY INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE EXPLOSION AND SUBSEQUENT FIRE

MARCH 9, 2015

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNEWYORK)

Four people were injured — one of whom was missing for hours — after a fire broke out late Monday afternoon at a warehouse reportedly used by a chemical tank container company in Newark.

This is what the webpages of this company state regarding the Newark Terminal:

The Boasso Newark Terminal offers empty & loaded handling, cleaning, heating, pressure & statutory testing, modification, empty & loaded storage, and even full refurbishment of 20′ ISO Tank Containers. All work is performed by trained mechanics, employing the latest techniques and instruments so even the most rigid quality standards are met. For additional information, please contact Kristian Backhouse.

The Newark Terminal also offers local and long haul trucking of 20′ ISO Tank Containers within the 48 contiguous states. With the goal of satisfying the specific requirements of each customer and plant, our professional drivers and dispatchers operate in tandem round the clock. 

As Joe Biermann reported from Chopper 2, the fire broke out at 5:14 p.m. after an explosion at the warehouse at the Boasso America Company, at 80 Doremus Ave. in Newark, near Exit 15E on the New Jersey Turnpike. The blaze was raised to a second alarm.

A whole side of the two- or three-story industrial building collapsed as a result of the explosion, WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported. Flames were shooting from the roof and black smoke was pouring into the air.

Four people were injured in the fire, officials told CBS2. Three of the injured people were taken University Hospital in Newark, and the third was taken to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, officials said.

Their conditions were not immediately learned.

One of the injured people taken to University Hospital was missing until finally being found inside at 8:40 p.m., officials said.

The building housed a chemical company, and reportedly housed numerous chemicals as well as propane.  Several tanks were also being stored in the area around the building.

Fire crews were told to stand back from the immediate area, but officials said chemicals were not burning.

The first fire truck at the scene mounted the tower ladder raised to keep the firefighters at a safe distance.

The building sustained a partial roof collapse and severe damage.

The cause of the fire was not immediately learned. By 7:20 p.m., the fire was largely knocked down, but was not under control.

Public Service Electric & Gas was also on the scene.

By 11 pm, the fire is mostly extinguished. The fire department and the Department of Environmental Protection are on the scene identifying the chemicals involved.

We would not be surprised if the fire and explosion was caused by the welding of containers that were not properly cleaned or when flammable gases were ignited by a sparking or heat source.

PILOTS TO NTSB: BRAKES WERE ON, BUT PLANE DIDN'T SLOW

A plane that skidded off the runway at LaGuardia Airport hangs over the edge of the runway in New York, Thursday, March 5, 2015. The plane, from Atlanta, skidded off the runway while landing, and crashed through a chain-link fence. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) 

 

MARCH 9, 2015

NEW YORK

The pilots of a Delta plane that skidded off a runway at LaGuardia Airport last week during a snowstorm have told investigators that automatic systems designed to slow down the plane were not working properly, investigators said Monday.

The pilots said the plane's automatic brakes were set to "max," but they did not sense any deceleration as the aircraft veered toward Flushing Bay, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The flight crew also said the runway appeared "all white" — covered in snow — when they broke out of the overcast sky and glimpsed it just moments before landing.

The plane's automatic spoilers — flaps on top of the wings that reduce lift and slow the plane down — did not deploy, but the first officer deployed them manually. The captain also reported he was unable to prevent the airplane from drifting to the left.

Investigators said the plane was flying on autopilot until it was 230 feet off the ground, indicating a fairly routine landing until the very end.

Delta Flight 1086 from Atlanta was carrying 127 passengers, including two lap children, plus five crew members, when it slid off the runway Thursday and skidded about 2,000 feet along a normally grassy area alongside the runway that was covered in snow. For the last 940 of those feet, the plane's left wing was cutting through and destroying the airport's chain-link perimeter fence, investigators said. The aircraft came to rest with its nose leaning perilously on a berm that separates the runway from icy Flushing Bay.

The plane suffered damage to the left wing, including a punctured fuel tank that caused a leak. The belly of the aircraft from the nose to the first passenger door and the nose itself also were damaged, investigators said.

Since Delta took ownership of the MD-88 plane on Dec. 30, 1987, it had taken off and landed 54,865 times, investigators said. Spread out over the past 28 years, that means the plane flew an average of 5.5 flights a day.

The MD-88 was a workhorse of U.S. domestic airlines for the past three decades, favored on short, frequent routes. This particular one had logged more than 71,000 hours — or nearly 3,000 full days — in the air.

Investigators are also examining an identical MD-88 plane that landed at LaGuardia 13 minutes before the botched landing as a baseline for evaluating the data from Flight 1086.

1 DEAD, 2 INJURED IN ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY HOUSE FIRE

MARCH 9, 2015

ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY

A 57-year-old city man suffered a fatal heart attack after being pulled from a burning home Monday afternoon, said police spokesperson Det. Capt. Timothy Torell. 

Calls started to come in around 1:40 p.m. reporting a fire at 370 Shepard Ave. When firefighters and police arrived, one resident was found outside but Charles Brown was still trapped in the structure, Torell said.  Brown was in cardiac arrest at the scene and was later pronounced dead at Englewood Hospital. 

The other resident was treated for an injured hand.  An Englewood firefighter was treated for burns to his wrist, Torell said. 

The fire, which went to three alarms before it was contained, drew responders from several communities, including Tenafly and Hackensack. The fire was still under investigation late Monday.

Man was electrocuted after the platform of his aerial lift touched an overhead power line and caught fire in Hackensack, New Jersey.

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

HACKENSACK, NEW JERSEY

A utility worker was shaken, but unhurt after the platform of his aerial lift touched an overhead power line and caught fire in Hackensack, New Jersey.

The rescue underway

The man was carrying out a test procedure on a 60 foot Elliot V60 telescopic truck mounted lift out in front of the premises of National Crane Equipment Rental on Hudson Street around 8 a.m when he strayed too close to the wires. The emergency services and local utility PSE&G came to his rescue and cut the power so that he could be brought down safely.

 

They then used a fully insulated boom and a rescue platform managed to bring him down – he was miraculously unhurt, although badly shaken.

Chemical extinguishers were used to knock down a fire in the truck during the incident.

The truck caught fire and melted the snow under the stabilizer feet