Explosions at Rochester Airport

I was not planing on using the library computer today, but something has happened and I wanted to make you aware. Around 12:50 I heard a boom. It sounded like an explosion. My neighbor said that her apartment shook. It took awhile for the news to trickle in. At first it was very sketchy. An explosion of some kind at the Rochester Airport. At lest one person was hurt.

It took about 2 very long hours for us to get any official word from County Executive Maggie Brooks and Airport Director David Damelio... "Two hydrogen tanks at Monroe County's alternative fuel station on Scottsville Road exploded and caught fire this afternoon, sending black smoke high in the air. The blasts were heard as far away as Pittsford."

"A 24-year-old male employee of Praxair drove an 18-wheel truck carrying a compressed-hydrogen tank to the station to replace another truck and tank."... "The mostly empty hydrogen tank exploded and caught fire about 12:50 p.m. Officials believe that there was some sort of arcing on the ground that spread the flames to the truck with the full tank, which also exploded. By the time of Brooks’ 2:45 p.m. briefing, the hydrogen had been burned off and the fire extinguished."

Two people were injured. The truck driver and a 20-year-old female employee of a nearby Burger King suffered ear pain. "Concourse B, the westernmost part of the airport terminal, was evacuated for about an hour." "Scottsville and Paul roads were among several streets that were closed during the firefighting effort."

The cause of the explosion is under investigation. "It is an accident," Damelio said. "We need to find out what caused it and what we can do to keep this from happening again in the future."

I was very relieved to hear that it was not terrorism and that no one was killed. It is a different time folks. It makes you think!

For more information- "Rochester airport explosion: Hydrogen tanks ignite" by Democrat and Chronicle.com