Incompatible Chemicals: Explosion at AB Specialty Silicones



A CSB safety video about the May 3, 2019, reactive chemistry incident at the AB Specialty Silicones manufacturing facility in Waukegan, Illinois. Two incompatible chemicals were mixed and reacted, producing flammable hydrogen gas that ignited, causing a massive explosion that killed four workers.

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39 thoughts on “Incompatible Chemicals: Explosion at AB Specialty Silicones”

  1. REALLY LARGE LABELS on otherwise identical drums would be useful. The US military uses color coded bands on munitions to differentiate live and training components and a color band standard for some chemicals might be useful in industry. Small labels are inherently poor human interface design and because they're cheap that's not questioned.

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  2. At first, I was really irritated by the lady's sing-song, condescending voice. Then I remembered that people are stupid, and based on what was described in the video, I figured the tone was probably appropriate.

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  3. What happened to proper shift Handover? This is why we need logsheets and logbooks at Any plant they help to avoid such incidents . Shift handover is very important in Chemical or Any Process industries. Stricter regulations need to be put in place to avoid fatal incidents.

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  4. I lived just a few miles away from this plant when the explosion occurred. It shook the house and the shockwave was felt for miles around. That 3d model is very accurate with just how much debris there was. I've been waiting for the results of this investigation ever since it happened. Thanks to the CSB for helping us understand what happened.

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  5. This channel updates so rarely but the vids are SOOO interesting!!! And horrible most of the time aswell, but i Live Safety at my factory job. I really like becoming more aware. Please upload more often! Thanks for…. i guess.. Existing? i don't know… You people are great tho!

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  6. These videos make me kinda worry about practices that facilities I use operate. There's a facility that I visit daily, where totes of what I believe are diesel luberocity additive (class 3, 1993. Just like diesel itself) are placed where a truck could potentially swing into them accidentally. This possibly is compounded by the fact that the rack requires a tight turn to get into the lane and a failure to maintain lighting reducing visibility. They also lock out the transmix drains, which means mixing product is possible. None of these things would cause an explosion, but environmental damage. Mixed product can cause engine damage, particularly to diesel engines. There was also this one gasoline additive that leaked for days at another facility, smelled like rotten vanilla and seemed to lingre on your skin and clothes for a while. My state doesn't have vapor laws, so vapor recovery systems at stores can be in disrepair for years… Which is fun…

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  7. Having done this exact type of work with some of these exact chemicals. This is largely the employees fault that was doing the batch on the second shift. When you start your blend, rule number 1 is ALWAYS CHECK THE LABELS ON THE DRUMS after that DOUBLE CHECK. 99% of the time poly drums are blue or white, so they always look the same. You NEED to make sure you have the right chemicals when you start. You could make an argument for keeping them separate but at a small site like this it's not always practical. There are often multiple blends going on at once, so if you move a drum somewhere else you could be dropping it where it's in someone else's way. Also the first shift probably left it there thinking that the second would need it as well to adjust the PH for their blend since they use the same chemicals. Potassium Hydroxide can be very dangerous and corrosive, even at 10% like in the video. It also heats up VERY quickly when mixed with water. I always hated using it and we made sure to use full-bodied suits and full face respirators when handling it. Thank you guys for the awesome video, I can't stop watching these

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  8. 6:24
    Is Vonzella Vincent disabled? It sounds like she can barely speak. Her facial expressions struggled to match what she was talking about and they were inappropriately exaggerated. It looks like she's had a stroke.

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