Chemical Incident Reporting – Week of 4-4-26

NOTE: See here for series background. 

Paterson, NJ – 4-3-26  

Local News Report: Here, here, and here. 

There was a fire at an abandoned chemical facility. A natural gas line to the facility contributed to the size of the fire. The building was damaged beyond repair and vehicles at an adjacent car sales lot were damaged. The facility is reportedly an EPA superfund site. 

CSB reportable. 

Fort Worth, TX – 4-5-26  

Local News Report: Here, here, here, and here. 

There was a fire at a gasoline station where a gasoline delivery truck was involved in an accident. Leaking gasoline was ignited by downed powerlines. The truck driver was hospitalized with serious injuries. 

Not CSB reportable, transportation related incident. 

Mooresville, NC – 4-7-26  

Local News Report: Here, here, here, and here. 

There was a tank truck explosion at a chemical facility. The driver was killed and an employee was injured and transported to a local hospital. The truck was reportedly transporting sodium hydroxide and the driver reported a leak minutes before the explosion. The explosion caused a leak of an unidentified chemical tank at the facility. 

NOTE: Sodium hydroxide is not flammable, so this is likely to be some sort of overpressurization of the truck. Having said that the explosion was so powerful that the trailer was broken cleanly into two pieces. It will be interesting to see what the NTSB concludes. 

Not CSB reportable – NTSB is investigating. 

East Providence, RI – 4-8-26  

Local News Report: Here, here, here, and here. 

There was an explosion in an insulation drying oven . Twelve employees were transported to the hospital. 

Possible CSB reportable.