New Jersey Residents Evacuated As 6-Alarm Fire Rages At Chemical Plant

[Nevilledog]

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Officials fear toxic gases as the blaze spreads to multiple buildings at the Passaic plant.

huffpost.com
New Jersey Residents Evacuated As 6-Alarm Fire Rages At Chemical Plant
Officials fear toxic gases as the blaze spreads to multiple buildings at the Passaic plant.
9:41 PM · Jan 14, 2022

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/qualco-chemical-plant-passaic-new-jersey-six-alarm-fire-evacuations_n_61e237d3e4b0c6802ee6de81

[FalloutShelter]

1. This fire is up to eleven alarms

And is being spread by the wind gusts. I have family that live across the river in Wallington,NJ and they are being told to look out for live embers that are being blown across the river. Also told to close any windows, though I doubt many are open in the frigid cold.

Total disaster. Keep a thought for the firefighters.

[Nevilledog]

2. Yikes. Hope they stay safe.

Looks like a nightmare for firefighters.

[FalloutShelter]

3. Both my father and grandfather

Were volunteer firefighters and they both said the most difficult fires they fought were in freezing temperatures. Say a prayer.

[yorkster]

4. Terrible - and frigid temps

are forecast, as well as high winds.

Eleven alarms. How awful.

[Demovictory9]

7. scary

[jmowreader]

5. Forget "fearing toxic gases"

I looked it up. They make pool chemicals, which means you've got chlorine, lye and hydrochloric acid gases to deal with. Also, Passaic is just to the west of New York City.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Per North Jersey Dotcom...

...the fire didn't start at Qualco.
Firefighters say the start appeared to start at the Majestic warehouse. B&D shows Majestic to be a small specialty furniture maker.
Had the fire started at Qualco, I find it unlikely that it wouldn't have gotten to the chlorine storage before firefighters could stop it.
Lastly, lye is not an issue in a fire. More than likely it's a 40% solution of KOH, because KOH solid is hygroscopic, and is a pain to work with. Since it's 60% water, and KOH itself is not combustible, it's the lowest concern.
My guess is that they have both KOH & hydrochloric to do pH adjustments, so likely very low quantities. Still have to declare under TSCA & RTK, but small.
Chlorine tanks are a whole different matter.
Glad the firefighters blocked the fire to that section of the site.

[jmowreader]

10. Hydrochloric acid is also a pool chemical

You use it to lower pH of the pool water. The muriatic acid I sold at Home Depot had the instructions for doing it printed on the box.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Makes Sense

If I had a pool, I wouldn't use it, though.
I'd but citric or phosphoric acid instead.
Both of those acids assume anions that form buffers that hold the pH stable for very long times.
Also, both are far less aggressive on the skin, and can be bought as food grade.
That's the chemist in me, though.

[jmowreader]

12. The reason they use it...

…is it takes much less HCl than citric or phosphoric to get the pH to move. The 15x30 pools that were so common in Fayetteville have 15,000 gallons of water in them. Moving the pH of that much water is easier than getting Trump to make sense, but not by much.

[electric_blue68]

6. Oh, jeez, I barely caught a news radio snippet earlier. Good luck, people!

[no_hypocrisy]

8. To his credit, the Mayor of Passaic has made regular updates on social media

both in English and in Spanish. He was probably up all night with the fire fighters.