16 October 2011

Intentional Explosion at Energy Plant Set for Sunday Morning

Intentional Explosion at Energy Plant Set for Sunday Morning

Tanks full of compressed hydrogen at a fire-ravaged energy plant are too dangerous to transport and will be blown up early Sunday morning, a move that will temporarily close a freeway in the eastern San Fernando Valley, a federal official said Saturday.

The controlled explosion is necessary as federal and state investigators continue to probe a pair of accidental blasts at plants operated by an alternate energy company, including an Aug. 9 blast in Sylmar that critically injured two men and a 2010 blast that killed a person in nearby Simi Valley.

Beginning about 6 a.m. Sunday, the Foothill (210) Freeway will be closed between Maclay Avenue and the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway for up to several hours, an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The blast is set for about 6:30 a.m. at the recycling yard.

Detour signs will route freeway traffic around the closure via the 118 and Golden State (5) freeways. Foothill Boulevard will also be closed in the area, and local businesses have agreed to close for the 6:30 a.m. detonation.

”While there are no residential structures in the immediate vicinity, the nearest communities might notice the police activity in the area and hear the explosion,” said Nahal Mogharabi, press officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

”The business operators in the impacted area have been kept informed and will be temporarily closed,” Mogharabi said.

The intentional explosion will be inside the fire-damaged Rainbow of Hope, a company that claimed to be generating alternative fuel in a canyon east of the Foothill (210) Freeway in Sylmar, just north of the interchange with the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway.

A joint statement issued by federal officials and the LAPD said the exact cause of last August's explosion remains under investigation.

”Numerous other cylindrical containers have been discovered at the extensively-damaged facility,” the statement said.

”Since the exact cause of the explosion is not fully understood, the Unified Command has decided that the safest course of action is to evacuate the area and intentionally rupture the cylinders which present a hazard,” the statement said.

The blast last August occurred when two men were reportedly transferring hydrogen from one cylinder to another. William Stehl, a part owner of the company, and a second man were critically injured.

Two similar blasts had hit a Simi Valley branch of the same company, which the Ventura County Star said was partly owned by Timothy A. Larson, a lawyer with offices in the northern San Fernando Valley. One of Larson's sons, Tyson Larson, was killed in a June 2010 explosion at the company's Simi Valley facility.

A second son, Tim Larson, was the second man injured in Sylmar. He was described at the time as a Los Angeles city firefighter on long-term disability.

The Star reported that Stehl and the elder Larson had applied for a patent to generate energy from water. Stehl had also faced trial on federal charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and tax evasion in connection with the energy company.

At the time of the August explosions, firefighters said they were confronted with numerous unexploded cylinders of oxygen and hydrogen, and unidentified other materials, that had been damaged. Both elements can be explosive in concentrated amounts.

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