The T2 Laboratories explosion and fire occurred on December 19, 2007, in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the c ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, resulting in the deaths of four people and the injury of fourteen others. T2 Laboratories Inc. was a facility that specialized in the design and manufacture of

specialty chemicals Speciality chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products which provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. Some of the categories of speciality chemicals are adhesives, agr ...

primarily for

gasoline additive Petrol additives increase petrol's octane rating or act as corrosion inhibitors or lubricants, thus allowing the use of higher compression ratios for greater efficiency and power. Types of additives include metal deactivators, corrosion inhibi ...

s. The explosion's force was equivalent to detonating 1,400 lbs of

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reage ...

and it spread debris up to a mile from the plant. Following the explosion, every HAZMAT unit in Jacksonville and over 100 firefighters fought the ensuing blaze, which a spokesman termed a "hellish inferno". The blast killed Robert Scott Gallagher, 49; Charles Budds Bolchoz, 48; Karey Renard Henry, 35; and Parrish Lamar Ashley, 36. At the time of his death, Gallagher was Marketing Director for T2 Labs. Fourteen people were hospitalized for chemical exposure or their injuries after the blast. The company laid off its workers and shut down in the following months. In September 2009, a report was released by the

U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (USCSB), generally referred to as the Chemical Safety Board or CSB, is an independent U.S. federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. Headquartered in Washingt ...

as to the cause of the accident.http://www.csb.gov/UserFiles/file/T2%20Final%20Report.pdf The explosion occurred in a 2500-gallon

batch reactor The batch reactor is the generic term for a type of vessel widely used in the process industries. Its name is something of a misnomer since vessels of this type are used for a variety of process operations such as solids dissolution, product mix ...

during production of

methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT or MCMT) is an organomanganese compound with the formula (C5H4CH3)Mn(CO)3. Initially marketed as a supplement for use in leaded gasoline, MMT was later used in unleaded gasoline to increase the o ...

(MCMT). The reactor cooling system, which lacked backups, failed; this led to a

thermal runaway Thermal runaway describes a process that is accelerated by increased temperature, in turn releasing energy that further increases temperature. Thermal runaway occurs in situations where an increase in temperature changes the conditions in a way t ...

. Pressures rapidly reached 400 PSI, bursting the

rupture disc A rupture disk, also known as a pressure safety disc, burst disc, bursting disc, or burst diaphragm, is a non-reclosing pressure relief safety device that, in most uses, protects a pressure vessel, equipment or system from overpressurization ...

, but the relief was insufficient to prevent the continued runaway reaction. Nearby witnesses described a jet engine-like sound as high pressure gases vented from the reactor. At the same time pressure increased in the reactor, temperatures also increased in the reactor until the solvent (

diglyme Diglyme, or bis(2-methoxyethyl) ether, is a solvent with a high boiling point. It is an organic compound which is the dimethyl ether of diethylene glycol. (The name ''diglyme'' is a portmanteau of ''diglycol methyl ether''.) It is a colorless liq ...

) reached its decomposition temperature. The pressure and temperature continued to increase until the reactor violently ruptured and the MCMT exploded, destroying the reactor. Damage from the explosion was severe enough that 4 buildings in the immediate vicinity of the plant were condemned.

References

External links

CSB safety investigation video
{{coord, 30.434, -81.568, display=title, format=dms Explosions in 2007 Disasters in Florida Fires in Florida Explosions in the United States Industrial fires and explosions in the United States 2007 industrial disasters 2007 fires in the United States Burned buildings and structures in the United States 2007 in Florida December 2007 events in the United States Northside, Jacksonville