Explosions Los Angeles

A retired Rocketdyne mechanic testified Friday that he and four others were disposing of waste materials at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Chatsworth in 1994 when an explosion killed two veteran scientists. Lee Wells, 70, of Newbury Park said he watched chemical engineer Otto K. Heiney pour a liquid into an aluminum box as he prepared to burn the chemical mixture at a secluded outdoor test site.

A retired Rocketdyne mechanic testified Friday that he and four others were disposing of waste materials at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Chatsworth in 1994 when an explosion killed two veteran scientists. Lee Wells, 70, of Newbury Park said he watched chemical engineer Otto K. Heiney pour a liquid into an aluminum box as he prepared to burn the chemical mixture at a secluded outdoor test site.

A badly worn pipe may have led to the October explosion at Texaco's Wilmington refinery that rocked southern Los Angeles County, shattered windows and caused hundreds of people to evacuate their homes, Los Angeles fire officials said. In a preliminary report partially based on information supplied by Texaco, fire officials say the remains of a pipe that broke, and may have emitted a gas cloud that exploded, had a wall thickness of one-eighth inch; it should have been five-eighths of an inch.

A deadly explosion and fire turned a weathered Hollywood apartment building--which less than a year ago was riddled with fire safety violations--into a chaotic inferno early Thursday. Two residents died and at least six people, including two children and four firefighters, were injured. Within minutes of receiving a 3:41 a.m. emergency call, firefighters arrived at the four-story Palomar Hotel at 5473 Santa Monica Blvd.

Two men were killed and a third was seriously injured Tuesday morning when a massive chemical explosion ripped through a rocket engine test site on a rugged plateau in the Simi Hills. The 9:13 a.m. blast at Rockwell International's Rocketdyne Division plant--so powerful that some nearby residents mistook it for an earthquake--did not ignite any buildings on the guarded, 2,700-acre facility. It did, however, touch off a brush fire in the boulder-strewn chaparral surrounding the plant.

Texaco Inc., moving to head off claims filed in connection with an explosion at its Wilmington refinery, is reaching settlements with hundreds of residents in return for signed promises not to sue the company if they or their children become ill in the future. The settlement payments are being made by Texaco's insurance carrier, CIGNA, and are issued for each release signed.

A Northridge home that exploded and caught fire Monday may have been a methamphetamine lab, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. Police detectives said they found the chemicals and equipment used to make the drug in the home. "People were seen running out of the house when [the Fire Department] arrived at the scene," Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dan Mastro said. The occupants of the home scattered as firefighters extinguished the flames, he said.

A deadly explosion and fire turned a weathered Hollywood apartment building--which less than a year ago was riddled with fire safety violations--into a chaotic inferno early Thursday. Two residents died and at least six people, including two children and four firefighters, were injured. Within minutes of receiving a 3:41 a.m. emergency call, firefighters arrived at the four-story Palomar Hotel at 5473 Santa Monica Blvd.

El Monte police arrested two men in the wake of the area's latest methamphetamine lab explosion, this one in an apartment complex. Chadwick Allen Schlie of Arcadia and Matthew Seymour of El Monte, both 26, were charged with manufacturing the drug after the Saturday night explosion, Lt. Chuck Fullington said. Investigators who responded to an 11 p.m. disturbance call at the Maxson Road complex found Schlie standing in front of one of the apartments, with burns on his face, torso and arms.

Two men were killed instantly and a third seriously injured Tuesday morning when a chemical explosion ripped through Rockwell International's rocket engine test site on a rugged plateau in the Simi Hills. The 9:13 a.m. blast at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory--so powerful that some nearby residents mistook it for an earthquake--did not ignite any buildings at the guarded, 2,700-acre hilltop facility. It did, however, touch off a brush fire in the boulder-strewn chaparral surrounding the plant.

A Northridge home that exploded and caught fire Monday may have been a methamphetamine lab, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. Police detectives said they found the chemicals and equipment used to make the drug in the home. "People were seen running out of the house when [the Fire Department] arrived at the scene," Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dan Mastro said. The occupants of the home scattered as firefighters extinguished the flames, he said.

A woman received first- and second degree burns when 30 cans of insect-killing foggers she set off in her Los Angeles home ignited, blowing out the windows and raising part of the roof, fire officials said. The blast melted her clothes, burning her legs, said Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells. The woman, whom Wells did not identify, was taken to King/Drew Medical Center. The injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, Wells said. What triggered the explosion at 3:18 p.m.

Three workmen remained in critical condition Friday, a day after they were severely burned when their halogen lamp ignited lacquer fumes and caused an explosion on the 23rd floor of a Westwood high-rise. The men were injured about 3:25 p.m. Thursday while working in a penthouse at the Wilshire condominium complex. They were transported to the Grossman Burn Center at the Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center, where they remained Friday.

An explosion on the 23rd floor of a Westwood high-rise Thursday burned five workmen, some critically, after a halogen lamp ignited lacquer fumes from workmen's sprayers, authorities said. The blast at 3:25 p.m. shook the condominium building at 10580 Wilshire Blvd., sent a plate glass window flying onto a car below and triggered a flash fire that burned men working in a penthouse undergoing renovation.

Two canisters of tear gas exploded at a downtown paper recycling plant, exposing about 30 workers to irritating fumes, authorities said. The tear gas canisters came with a load of recyclable paper to the plant at 2474 E. Porter Ave., said Nosa Omoruyi, a hazardous-materials specialist with the county of Los Angeles. The canisters went off about 6:30 a.m., a Los Angeles City Fire spokesman said. Hazardous-materials teams were sent to the scene to determine what the fumes were.

A man detonated a large firecracker inside his South Normandie Avenue apartment Sunday morning, causing an explosion that led to the evacuation of two city blocks, police said. Neighbors were not hurt, but the man, who was in police custody Sunday, was treated for minor injuries, said Los Angeles police spokesman Trevion Stokes. The firecracker that exploded at 340 S. Normandie Ave. just before 8 a.m. was "slightly larger than a cherry bomb," Stokes said.

A man who neighbors claim often blows things up was injured early Friday by a mailbox he allegedly rigged to explode and was arrested at a hospital after a homemade bomb fell out of his pocket. The injured man, Ross Woolley, 29, of Woodland Hills, was reported in satisfactory condition at West Valley Hospital and Medical Center, where he underwent surgery for injuries to his arm, said hospital spokeswoman Johna Rogovin.

Almost five years after a cloud of methane gas ignited in the basement of a Fairfax District clothing store and injured 23 people, underground concentrations of methane still pose a significant explosion threat in the area, some geologists and petroleum experts say. "I believe what happened there will happen soon again--and again and again," said George V. Chilingar, a petroleum engineering professor at USC, in a deposition taken to support an upcoming lawsuit.

More than 15,000 Department of Water and Power customers on the Westside were temporarily without power Sunday after a small explosion at a power facility, a DWP spokeswoman said. The explosion, caused by an equipment failure at a transfer station near the corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and Nebraska Avenue, sparked the outage about 11 a.m., said DWP spokeswoman Winifred Yancy. No one was hurt in the explosion. Power was restored to all DWP customers by 2 p.m., she said.

Two men severely burned in an electrical panel explosion at a discount clothing store remained in critical condition Tuesday, officials said. Ken Withee, 40, of Rancho Cucamonga, suffered second- and third-degree burns over about 50% of his body, including his stomach, chest, shoulders, arms and face, said Larry Weinberg, spokesman for the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. Withee, an electrician, was breathing with the aid of a respirator, Weinberg said.