Ill. has an explosion

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


A gas line exploded Monday at a technology plant in northern Illinois, sending aloft debris that killed a man at a nearby highway rest area. The explosion rocked the NDK America Inc. plant in Belvidere, about 70 miles northwest of Chicago, sending trembles through buildings as far as a mile away and echoing throughout the community of about 20,000 people. "It sounded like a traffic accident — a boom," said Greg Brown, a school district official. "We thought someone dropped something on the roof. It was like a little earthquake." The man who was killed was pronounced dead at the Illinois Tollway Oasis on Interstate 90, Illinois Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said. Boone County Coroner Rebecca Wigget identified him as truck driver Ronald Greenfield, 63, of Chesterton, Ind. Wigget said Greenfield was walking to his truck at the rest area, which also has several restaurants, when he was struck by a large piece of flying debris. She refused to describe the extent of his injuries. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. Jim Fealtman, a regional sales manager at NDK America's office in Webster, Mass., the company's other U.S. location, said no one at the Belvidere plant was injured in the blast. He had no other information. Three sides of the NDK plant, which makes synthetic crystals for computers, collapsed in the blast, WIFR-TV in Rockford reported. The entrance to the plant, which is in a large empty field, was blocked Monday night. The rest area is visible from the plant. NDK had moved to a new 55,000-square-foot factory in Belvidere in September 2003 and employs about 30 people, according to Growth Dimensions, the economic development agency for the city of Belvidere and Boone County. The building housed four 75-ton "autoclaves" — each 50 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet in diameter — in which the crystals were grown.
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[murielm99]

1. Thanks for posting.

This is not far from me, but I hadn't heard about it yet.

[FarCenter]

2. 1 killed at oasis after blast at NDK

http://www.rrstar.com/belvidere/x1964353088/Injuries-apparent-explosion-at-NDK-plant

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The tall, 55,000-square-foot building, visible from Interstate 90, opened in 2003 at a cost of $12.5 million. It houses NDK Crystal and NDK America Inc., and serves as the North American headquarters for their Japan-based parent company, Nihon Dempa Kogyo Co. Ltd.

Inside the building are several 50-foot-tall, 75-ton vessels in which synthetic quartz crystal is grown. That crystal is used to make frequency-control devices, which NDK then sells to mobile telephone makers and others for use in electronic devices.

Worrell said one of those pressurized vessels at the west end of the building exploded. Worrell did not know what substance was kept under pressure. The blast blew off a portion of the west end of the building’s exterior shell exposing much of the interior of the six- to seven-story tall building to the elements.

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[SlingBlade]

3. They claimed that the building was designed

to come apart "outwards" in the case of an explosion.

Guess they didn't think about WHERE those pieces would go after they left the building. Too bad there was loss of life,,,RIP