About 24 years ago, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal India exploded killing as many as 20,000 people. The plant was manufacturing methyl isocyanate (MIC), a component of Sevin insecticide. At the time, the only other Union Carbide plant of similar design making the same product existed 7 miles up wind from my home here in West Virginia.
About an hour ago that plant, now owned by Bayer Crop Sciences, exploded. It rattled my windows. Just now the Shelter In Place sirens up and down the valley have started sounding.
I’m not sure if the plant still manufactures MIC/Sevin. The news says it’s likely the Larvin unit that exploded. But it’s hard not to think of Bhopal right now.
Damn. Good luck. I remember Bhopal quite well. I don’t know what to say, except I’d hate to trust my life to Shelter in Place in my house as crappy and leaky as it is. Hopefully, in the years since then, they’ve converted your local plant to the less toxic manufacturing method mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Bhopal that you linked to. The article mentioned Bayer specifically:
Not to worry. So far the only bad reports are one plant worker was injured and one is missing. A few people are reporting broken windows from the explosion but there doesn’t seem to be any noxious fumes in the air right now. We’re having what the TV weather guy calls an inversion - foggy with very little wind. Not sure if that would be a good thing or not.
So no big worries… just morbidly thinking about the worst case.
Thanks
PC
My friend just showed up here. He lives much closer to the plant. His mom is trapped at a casino a few miles on the other side of the plant and can’t get home. All road east-west (I-64, US60, SR 25) through this narrow valley are shut down.
Checking the morning news it seems the incident turned out no worse than the initial reports. One worker has been transported to Pittsburgh for burn treatment. Another worker is still missing. It was indeed the Larvin unit and didn’t involve the deadly MIC. And no reports of any widespread chemical leaks anyway. For most of us it was just a sobering night. MPSIMS.
Here’s a screen shot from Google Earth. I live on a ridge top overlooking Charleston’s west side. The Bayer plant is 7 miles west. My first thoughts were the explosion came from either the Dow plant on Blaine Island, a meth lab in the “holler” just west of me, or a natural gas pipeline. The institute plant was a long shot I first thought because the explosion was so loud and rumbled the ground.
My friend lives on the western end of South Charleston. Strangely, even though he was much closer, he didn’t hear or feel the explosion. He learned about it through a news flash on TV. Must be just a fluke of the terrain.
The casino is near Nitro. His mom and her sisters eventually made it home without incident.
My father was a chemical engineer that worked on that plant in Bhopal when it was being set up. I’ll have to ask him if he knows anything about the one in Institute. I’m sure he does - he worked in Agricultural Products for Union Carbide for many years; I grew up in South Charleston.
We live about 20 miles from Institute and didn’t feel anything. I have a friend who lives in South Charleston and she said it felt like something had hit their house.
According to my chemical engineer hubby, who was one of the folks who was onsite when Bayer was in the process of “drawing down” all but a small amount of MIC, there is just enough of the product left onsite to manufacture what’s needed, but no more.
Thanks everyone for the thoughts and information. Hello BaneSidhe. Nice to know there are other dopers in the area. Your sig line is extra interesting today. WVmom, your story reminds me of the glory days of Union Carbide here in the valley. I remember them as a real plus for the community all-in-all. I bet you even went to Carbide Camp.
