[news] £500k bill for chemical firm after hazardous gas cloud swept over the Black Country

[unixman_again]

This is the chemical factory at the end of my road. £500k bill for chemical firm after hazardous gas cloud swept over the Black Country | Express & Star

 

The explosion was in 2009 and it's the second time it's happened. Just after I moved into the area 20 years ago, I was in the back garden and there was a loud bang. I saw this large mushroom cloud rising over the factory and I though "That doesn't look quite right." Sure enough a while later, they were touring the area in cars will bullhorns telling everybody to go inside.

 

It's been there since 1850 and they make some nasty stuff like analine, white phosphorus, acids, etc. They hold annual public presentations to tell us how safe everything is. They also used to post a calendar through the letterbox every year (to keep us locals onside) but they didn't do it this year. Times must be hard.

[gtg93]

We used to have something similar near us, although it's shutdown now.

 

What used to make me laugh, was the leaflets we got once or twice a year explaining what the alarms meant.

 

Basically, if there was one loud continuous siren, the "advice" was to go indoors, close and seal all doors windows / air vents and listen to local radio for updates... Scary stuff