DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / August 2, 2000

ST. JAMES – A fire erupted after a process line ruptured at the IMC-AgricoFaustina plant at 7:11 a.m. Monday. The ammonia unit was in the process ofbeing shut down for a 30-day turnaround operation.

Rodey Martin, public relations officer for IMC-Agrico, said the lines had been blocked off and it was bleed-off gases that ignited while rupturing through a line.

There were 15 employees in the area, but no injuries were sustained.

“The unit employees extinguished the fire in about five minutes,” said Martin.

They didn’t even need to call the plant’s fire-fighting units, she added.

IMC-Agrico contacted the state and local officials to report the explosion, as required. There were no injuries, environmental impact or off-site impact toreport. Though a damage estimate has not yet been calculated, Martinreported the equipment damage as minimal.

The Department of Environmental Quality responded to IMC-Agrico’s call, but the incident was over by the time they got there, said Tyler Ginn, DEQ environmental scientist. “All we did was see if there was an environmentalimpact,” said Ginn. IMC-Agrico informed him that it was a mixture ofhydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide that had ignited. Ginn reported thatIMC-Agrico is required to send them written notification of the incident and what took place, but the DEQ doesn’t require an investigation.

The 30-day turnaround is a unit inspection procedure. Done about every twoyears, the ammonia unit is broken down, inspected for problems and standard maintenance is performed.

The turnaround had begun at 6 a.m. that morning.

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