Allied Terminals, Inc.; Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia | 1991-Feb-04

Initial Notification: NOAA was notified of the incident on February 4, 1991, by the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office (MSO) Hampton Roads. MSO was particularly interested in knowing the potential reaction of methanol if it combined with the other chemicals in the event of an explosion. NOAA told MSO that the immediate threat would be a large fire involving methanol if the pipe bomb could not be defused. NOAA also advised that oxide gases could be produced from the liquid fertilizer if the bombs detonated. NOAA suggested evacuating people from the area to at least a half mile away. NOAA established an information center at the USCG Reserve Training Center, Yorktown where a meeting of federal and state agencies involving emergency spill planning was in progress. Representatives of the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Public Health, and the Virginia Department of Emergency Services provided immediate response information on-scene and agreed that the response should be handled by local fire officials. Local fire officials established an evacuation zone of one mile from the facility. All the pipe bombs were removed and defused from the tanks without further incident. USCG district 5.