Steam Line Break on Channing

(Crystal A. Proxmire)


NOTE:  The leak has been confirmed by Fire Chief Kevin Sullivan to be a liquid Nitrogen leak.... details will be added soon.

 

A calm Sunday afternoon on the City’s southeast side was interrupted first by the booming sound of train cars bumping into each other stopping too quickly on the tracks, followed by billowing steam coming from an unrelated steam line break at the manufacturing plant adjacent to the tracks.

 

The plant, located at 1460 Channing houses many kinds of chemicals, including liquid nitrogen and oxygen, along with containers of petroleum distillates.  Security on the scene claimed the site is regulated by Homeland Security.

 

Three fire trucks, multiple ambulances and police cars were dispatched to secure the scene, though police quickly left once they realized that it was not a dangerous situation.  No injuries were reported.  Channing and Wanda were closed for about an hour.

 

Firefighters on the scene assured residents that the steam was not dangerous.  A security guard said that neighbors often confuse the sounds of the trains with “bombs, accidents and explosions” in the small industrial area along Wanda.  “The steam just happened to come at the same time as a train stopped, so someone called it in.  It’s a normal reaction.  But this is nothing.  It happens all the time,” said the security guard. 

 

The Ferndale 115 News will follow up with the Ferndale Fire Department and will post more information if any is available.