Holy Smoke JD! Good thing you weren't any closer otherwise you would be Falked!!!

Oh man!

Wow, have they said what caused it?

was it at another airgas facility?

airgas seems to be having that sort of problem the past few years...

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- An explosion rocked an industrial complex near downtown Milwaukee Wednesday morning, injuring about 30 people and spewing debris into the sky, a fire official said.

The explosion ignited a fire at a Falk Corp. warehouse and could be felt a mile and a half away, fire Lt. Brian O'Connor said.

Construction worker Jack Obarski said he was working nearby when he heard a loud boom and saw smoke hundreds of feet in the air.

"Stuff was just flying up in the air," Obarski said.

Construction crews working on buildings in the surrounding area were being sent home by their companies because of concern about smoke from the spreading fire.

The blast destroyed Falk's wood frame warehouse and numerous cars, along with several other buildings in the complex, O'Connor said. The fire spread through rubble covering several blocks.

The injured were being taken to several hospitals.

It was not immediately known what caused the blast.

Falk makes large industrial gears. The explosion occurred near the Potawatomi casino and about a half mile from the Miller Brewing Co.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- An explosion rocked an industrial complex near downtown Milwaukee Wednesday morning, injuring about 30 people and spewing debris into the sky, a fire official said.

The explosion ignited a fire at a Falk Corp. warehouse and could be felt a mile and a half away, fire Lt. Brian O'Connor said.

Construction worker Jack Obarski said he was working nearby when he heard a loud boom and saw smoke hundreds of feet in the air.

"Stuff was just flying up in the air," Obarski said.

Construction crews working on buildings in the surrounding area were being sent home by their companies because of concern about smoke from the spreading fire.

The blast destroyed Falk's wood frame warehouse and numerous cars, along with several other buildings in the complex, O'Connor said. The fire spread through rubble covering several blocks.

The injured were being taken to several hospitals.

It was not immediately known what caused the blast.

Falk makes large industrial gears. The explosion occurred near the Potawatomi casino and about a half mile from the Miller Brewing Co.

 

that is just awful... 

At least one Falk worker is missing

One Falk Corp. worker remains missing nearly three hours after an explosion destroyed a manufacturing building in the company's 1.5-million square foot complex in the Menomonee Valley.

Fire Chief William Wentland said rescue workers would continue to search the complex.

Initial estimates put the number of Falk workers injured at 25.

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 6, 2006, 10:45 a.m.
By Steve Schultze

Nearby pizza plant lends a hand

The good folks at Palermo Villa Pizza, which has its manufacturing plant near the Falk plant, opened their doors to Falk employees evacuated this morning - and fed them pizza as well, said Susan Gibbs, a Palermo vice president.

"We did what we could to keep everybody warm and feed them pizza," Gibbs said. "We've been cooking up a storm."

Firefighters and other emergency workers also were served, she said.

Gibbs witnessed the explosion from her second-floor office window.

"I heard something and looked up and saw the smoke and the fireball come out... It was huge, three, four stories tall," Gibbs said.

The sound was a deafening boom and the entire Palermo building shook. Ceiling material rained down on her, Gibbs said, and some outside doors at Palermo blew out. But none of the windows at the Palermo plant blew out, she said.

Palermo lent 20 employees to help count and check in the dazed Falk employees, who then were bused to Miller Park, Gibbs said. Falk executives remain at Palermo this morning, where they were using borrowed offices and phones, she said.

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 6, 2006, 10:29 a.m.

Falk hotline

If you have family members who were working at Falk this morning, you can call a special hotline at 414-286-3616.

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 6, 2006, 10:27 a.m.
By Journal Sentinel staff

UPDATE: Dozens injured in Falk explosion

A propane-fueled explosion in one of Milwaukee's oldest businesses this morning injured dozens of Falk Corp. workers, destroyed one of the manufacturer's buildings in the Menomonee Valley and shattered windows blocks away.

The frightened relatives of Falk workers rushed to Miller Park, where blast survivors assembled following the explosion that rattled much of the city and some of the suburbs shortly after 8 a.m.

"I'm going home, and I hope that's the case for the rest of my co-workers," said Glenn Cahala, who works in a main office separate from the building destroyed in the explosion.

"I can't think of what this means for some families, this time of year," he said. "I can't tell you how sad this is."

Dozens of workers, many of them with cuts and bruises caused by flying glass and debris, arrived at area hospitals throughout the morning.

"There will be a significant number of injuries, but there are no fatalities yet," Milwaukee Fire Lt. Lawrence Jenkins said shortly before 9 a.m.

A dozen injured workers were taken to Froedtert Hospital about 9 a.m., another four workers with minor injuries arrived at St. Mary's Hospital on the east side. Others were being taken to Sinai Samaritan Medical center downtown and St. Luke's Medical Center, at 2900 W. Oklahoma Ave.

Police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz urged residents and relatives of Falk workers to stay away from the area. There are numerous underground propane tanks on the property, and fire officials fear additional explosions, she said.

Fire, police and emergency medical crews gathered in the parking lots of Miller Park to coordinate efforts to rescue victims and fight the fire that followed the blast. Smoke billowed from the floor of the Valley just south of I-94, obscuring the sky and causing traffic to slow to a crawl.

"All I can see is the smokestack that says 'Falk,' " said the Fire Department's Jenkins.

Initial reports suggest a 10,000-gallon propane tank exploded in a warehouse that was destroyed in the blast.

Residents heard and felt the explosion in the downtown condominiums, houses in Bay View and offices on the far southwest side - even as far away as New Berlin.

Industrial workers in and around the Menomonee Valley described a war-like scene as the explosion knocked out windows and kicked up blinding clouds of dust.

"It felt like an earthquake," said Jeff Iding, a laborer at the family-owned M.P. Iding Company.

Jack Copet saw the aftereffects of the blast from the rear window of his Saturn, as he drove eastbound on I-94.

"It was almost like when the Twin Towers came down," said Copet, a 31-year-old quality control analyst from West Allis.

"I could see timber floating, flying off like in the movies," he said. "I thought, man, that was some power. It was scary. Everyone in my lane slammed on their brakes."

Falk and its manufacturing and warehouse complex along Canal St. is owned by the Rexnord Corp., which purchased the old Falk Corp. in May 2005. Roughly 200 workers are employed at the Falk complex, which continues to manufacture gears and industrial equipment.

Falk is one of Milwaukee's oldest manufacturing businesses, having opened its doors as a brewery in 1856. After finding success in foundry work, it transformed itself into a gear company in 1899.

The business went through many hands over the years, most recently being sold to the Rexnord Corp. for $295 million in May 2005. Included in the deal was the valley complex, which is 1.5 million square feet, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The federal government has fined Falk twice for safety violations in the last five years, records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration indicate.

In March, 2004, the agency assessed a $1,875 penalty against the company for air contamination involving silica crystalline quartz dust. The case was settled with a $950 payment, records indicate.

In December 2003, OSHA assessed a $4,500 penalty for a violation involving powered industrial trucks. That case was settled with a $2,700 payment.

The industrial-truck violation was classified as serious - meaning that the problem could have caused death or serious injury and that the company knew of it or should have known. The potential for injury from the air-contamination problem was not serious.

The corporation's long history in Milwaukee has included a fire that destroyed the business in 1889 and an explosion that killed one worker and injured 11 others in 1964.

In 1992, federal investigators cleared the company of wrongdoing in the 1991 death of Hugo Schulz, an employee from Brookfield, who was killed when a 1,000-pound clutch fell on him. OSHA found that Falk hadn't violated safety standards in the fatal accident, but the agency proposed a fine against the company for an unrelated violation that turned up in the investigation of Schulz's death.

My thoughts go out to the family who have lost family members or have people injured, we had a similar explosion here in the UK last week, a fireworks factory blew up killing two firemen and injuring others.

WE also had an explosion on Nov 22, 2006: read on---> this is a picture of a building nearby, not the chemical plant

 

DANVERS, Massachusetts (AP) -- A chemical plant outside Boston blew up Wednesday with a roar so thunderous, people thought it was an earthquake or a plane crash.

The explosion destroyed two dozen homes in the tightly packed neighborhood but caused only minor injuries.

The fiery blast flattened CAI Inc., a manufacturer of solvents and inks, around 3 a.m., knocking buildings off their foundations, shredding roofs and shattering windows in neighboring Salem. The explosion could be heard more than 20 miles away.

"I was in bed and then next thing I knew, I was on my feet. I saw the flames and grabbed my clothes. My first thought was that an airplane crashed," said Paul O'Donnell, an aircraft mechanic, "but then I thought it was too early for that."

Nearly 90 homes were damaged, with roughly 25 wrecked beyond repair. But only 10 of the more than 300 people believed to be in the neighborhood were hurt, and their injuries were minor, authorities said.

The plant was empty at the time.

"The miracle is you have the equivalent of a 2,000-pound bomb going off in a residential neighborhood at night when everybody is home, and no one's dead and no one is seriously injured," Gov. Mitt Romney said.

Officials said it could take weeks to determine the cause of the explosion.

Most of the damaged homes were in view of the plant, and some stood right across the street. The neighborhood is among the oldest in the city, dating to the 1700s, with a mixture of business and homes because it was settled before modern zoning rules.

Firefighters from 30 cities and towns battled the blaze in this community about 20 miles northeast of Boston.

Bakery owner Luis Ferreira was working overnight making bread and pies for Thanksgiving customers when "all of the sudden -- boom -- and everything gets dark."

Through the flour and dust, employees called out to each other.

"We had no idea what happened at the time. We just got out of there," said Ferreira, who suffered scrapes on his face and wore a bandage on his temple.

CAI owner Paul Sartorelli said plant officials were "shocked and devastated" by the accident. "We don't know anything right now," he told the Boston Herald. "We've just been 100 percent fully cooperative with the authorities. We don't have any answers."

In one condominium across the nearby Crane River, the blast was so strong it bowed a woman's bedroom windows, sucked her curtains out and then returned the unbroken glass and frames to their original position -- with the curtain tops attached to the rod inside but the curtain bottoms fluttering outside in the breeze.

The company was inspected once, in 1990, by federal officials and no violations were found, according to Ted Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The lack of inspections indicates few complaints were filed with OSHA, he said.

"A lot of people never knew it was there, that's how benign they were," said one neighbor, Jack Fratus.

Very sorry to hear about this, will be praying!

I just saw......looks like another guy isn't going to make it through the night... 

That's horrible!

JD The Jazz Doctor wrote:

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its so strange- I work about a mile away from there, and people at work heard nothing! but people way way far away had their houses shake!

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Weird that!!  Is there any more news?  I hope everyone else ok.