LAS VEGAS, October 15, 2001. Bei Aerotech haben sich mehrere Explosionen ereignet !

Ich habe eben mit Gary Rosenfield telefoniert. Ihm selber geht es gut, die Verletzten sind Arbeiter aus der Produktion. Aus verständlichen Gründen konnte er nicht im Detail Auskunft geben, ich wollte ihn auch nicht lange aufhalten weil jetzt sicher viele Dinge auf ihn einstürzen.

Wie ich aus anderen Quellen erfuhr ereignete sich der Unfall beim Ausbohren von Treibstoff-Grains. Ein Funke von einer Maschine führte zu einer Reihe von Detonationen und einem ersten kleinen Feuer das aber schnell unter Kontrolle gebracht werden konnte. In einen zweiten Feuer, welches Stunden später ausbrach, geriet dann ein grosses Fass Magnesium in Brand und damit wurde die Sache unkontrollierbar.

Die Auswirkungen auf unser Hobby dürften dramatisch sein:

• Dieser Unfall kommt ausgerechnet in einer Zeit in welcher man in den USA versucht Ammonium-Perchlorat von der Liste der kontrollierten Explosivstoffe streichen zu lassen

• Aerotech dürfte für Monate nicht in der Lage sein zu produzieren, hier kann man von Glück reden dass sowieso die Winterpause ansteht

• Je nach Versicherungslage, rechtlichen Konsequenzen und finanziellen Ressourcen könnte sogar Aerotech's Zukunft gefährdet sein.

• Die gute Neuigkeit: Bausätze, wie sie gerade in der Winterpause gefragt sind, werden anderswo hergestellt und sind von den derzeitigen Ereignissen nicht betroffen.

Als unmittelbare Konsequenz sind wir vorerst von Nachschub abgeschnitten und müssen von dem leben was wir haben. Die Anzahl der heute lagernden Treibsätze sollte jedoch locker für einen uneingeschränkten Flugbetrieb 2002 reichen. Es ist aber absehbar dass einzelne sehr beliebte Treibsatztypen nicht unbegrenzt verfügbar sein werden. Hier wird in den nächsten Monaten Vorausplanung und Flexibilität beim Ausweichen auf Ersatztypen gefragt sein.

Bitte überrennt nun NICHT die Händler mit riesigen Bestellungen und forciert so Lieferengpässe noch in diesem Jahr. Ich denke dass wir in einem Monat bereits etwas klarer sehen werden ob und wann wir wieder mit Nachschub rechnen können.

Ich werde Euch hier und/oder auf der SpaceTec Homepage auf dem Laufenden halten.

Jürg Thüring, SpaceTec

Chemical-fueled fire out after 24 hours

County official promises to prohibit businesses with hazardous materials near residences

An intense fire in an eastern Las Vegas model rocket plant consumed six businesses, dozens of vehicles and thousands of pounds of hazardous materials before burning itself out Tuesday afternoon, some 24 hours after it began with a pair of explosions.

The Clark County Fire Department said sparks from a machine inside AeroTech Inc., near Boulder Highway and Sahara Avenue, ignited the $15 million accidental blaze that left two people fighting for their lives Tuesday night.

Flames fueled by more than a ton of ammonium perchlorate and 800 pounds of magnesium created an inferno that firefighters deemed too dangerous to battle. The fire billowed plumes of toxic smoke and prompted the evacuation of hundreds from homes in the area.

The three-alarm fire spurred County Commissioner Myrna Williams on Tuesday to vow that she will take action to ensure businesses with such chemicals no longer will be allowed near heavily populated areas.

"Any business that has to avail itself of hazardous materials that can cause the kind of disaster we had last night shouldn't be allowed in the residential core of Clark County," said Williams, who represents the area where the fire occurred. "It should be removed far enough away so it doesn't endanger anybody."

County zoning officials said it appears AeroTech didn't violate zoning laws by storing large amounts of ammonium perchlorate at their site. But Williams said Tuesday that she expects to change those laws.

"We have to look out for the common good," said Williams, who expects county staff to draft proposed changes to county laws within a month. "We have to do something to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The most serious casualties in the blaze were three burned AeroTech employees, two of whom were breathing Tuesday only with the aid of life-support machines.

Mike Martens, AeroTech's marketing director, declined comment on the fire.

"Our primary concern is for the employees that remain in the hospital. That's what's really at the front of our minds right now," Martens said.

The injured employees included a 24-year-old man and a 65-year-old man, both of whom suffered second- and third-degree burns over most of their bodies. They remained in critical condition Tuesday at University Medical Center, hospital spokesman Rick Plummer said.

A third male employee, 52, was listed in good condition with first- and second-degree burns, Plummer said.

Steve La-Sky, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said the fire gutted 60,000 square feet occupied by AeroTech and five smaller businesses in the same building at 1955 S. Palm St.

"We had no idea they had that kind of stuff inside," said Harry Woodcock, owner of Modern Concepts, a 12-year-old cabinetmaking firm destroyed in the fire. "We knew there were explosives inside, but nobody knew of what magnitude."

Business owners, peering at the blackened building from behind a Fire Department barrier Tuesday morning, reeled at the amount of damage the flames inflicted.

"I lost nine people's cars, including two Mercedes," said David Hudson, owner of Hudson Automotive, one of three automotive businesses razed. Hudson's car, a 1954 Buick he spent years restoring, also was consumed.

Another automotive business owner told firefighters he lost 30 vehicles to smoke and water damage, La-Sky said.

One of Woodcock's employees, an Argentinian man in his 20s who immigrated here four months ago, returned Tuesday morning with his wife to view the damage dealt by the fire. The Buenos Aires natives wept at the loss of his carpentry job.

La-Sky said the decision not to fight the fire Monday evening and Tuesday morning was based on several factors, including continual chemical explosions inside the building, fear of a roof collapse that could have injured firefighters and the volatility of the chemicals involved.

Magnesium, which often is used in fireworks and flares because it burns with a brilliant white light, produces intense heat. It is commonly used to make incendiary bombs. Ammonium perchlorate, a solid rocket fuel oxidizer, explodes when heated and emits toxic fumes when involved in a fire.

Fears about the smoke's toxicity helped prompt the evacuation of residents within a half-mile radius Monday. County officials said Tuesday there was little to be concerned about because the fire's intense heat sent the poisonous smoke high into the atmosphere.

Firefighters allowed mobile home park residents to return at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Echoing the area's business owners, many of them said they were shocked and then angered that they didn't know of explosive materials so close to them.

Linda and Kelley Graves said they were looking forward to getting back to their mobile home to shower, but the fire 200 yards from their front door put more pressing matters on their minds.

"What I'm concerned with is how in the world can they let someone get near downtown Las Vegas with the same stuff that damn near blew up Henderson a few years ago?" Kelley Graves said, referring to deadly 1988 explosions fueled by ammonium perchlorate.

The May 4, 1988, blasts and fire at PEPCON, a Henderson manufacturing plant, killed two people, injured more than 300 workers and residents and caused more than $74 million damage to nearby homes and schools.

"Those types of chemicals should not be within 1,000 feet of homes," said Sam Guile, a five-year resident of the Riviera Mobile Home Park, across the street from AeroTech. "Explosive materials should be sequestered. It scares the hell out of me. ... Why was that stuff in there?"

Barbara Ginoulias, Clark County's assistant director for current planning, said the fire likely will cause the county to take a second look at the law. County zoning laws prohibit the storage of highly hazardous materials at light industrial sites such as the one that housed AeroTech. State law doesn't consider ammonium perchlorate to be "highly hazardous" in quantities less than 7,500 pounds.

AeroTech had 2,500 pounds of the chemical at the site.

Ginoulias said the zoning for the building was approved in the mid-1970s, and that the business license for AeroTech was issued in 1987. If an industrial company came forward today, county officials would require it to be segregated from residential areas with manufacturing companies, retailers or some other business use, Ginoulias said.

"Today, if someone were asking for M-1 (industrial) zoning, we would look for some other kind of transition between industrial and residential," Ginoulias said.

Williams said it is important in a growing community such as Clark County to allow existing residences and businesses to avoid new laws by grandfathering in new zoning regulations or other land-use laws. But businesses that use hazardous materials shouldn't be given the same consideration, she said, and should be moved outside residential areas.

Bob Leinbach, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said a department engineer inspected AeroTech about six months ago and reviewed the company's compliance with the terms of its hazardous materials permit. But details of that inspection and the findings are unknown because the inspector is on vacation in Florida. Fire Department officials cannot locate AeroTech's file in his office.

"We could presume that the fact that they're still operating six months after an inspection meant they met certain standards," Leinbach said. "If there were some stringent requirements that weren't met, it would have been made known to higher authorities before now."

Many of the evacuated residents were confused Tuesday because the Fire Department initially said the fire was extinguished, then hours later reported a second, more serious fire that would be allowed to burn.

La-Sky said the blaze began about 12:20 p.m. with a pair of explosions. Firefighters quickly extinguished the initial flames, and hazardous materials experts were called in to spray chemical extinguishing agents on the magnesium as a precaution.

"It looked like everything had been neutralized," La-Sky said. "Then, about 8 feet away, for unknown reasons, another magnesium barrel started boiling up. They get out of there as it's flaming, and then all of a sudden there's a great big fireball consuming this place."

La-Sky said the Fire Department subsequently received additional information about the large amounts of explosive chemicals inside the building.

"Then we realized the gravity of this situation," he said. "We realized we couldn't fight this fire effectively and went into a totally defensive mode at that point."

At nearby Long Elementary School, 2000 S. Walnut Road, students and employees were evacuated Tuesday morning when administrators became concerned about the smoky smell still hanging in the air nearly a day after the first flames erupted.

The students were moved to Las Vegas High School but were returned to Long in the afternoon so parents and buses could pick them up as scheduled.

"This was just to be on the safe side because there were questions about the air quality in the area," said Lori Harris, a Clark County School District public information specialist.