SPECIAL REPORT: Copy of Complaint Filed Against EQ Industrial Service in RE: Apex, NC Fire

Dear Readers,

Yesterday I informed you that a suit had been filed in regards to the Apex Chemical Emission and Fire at EQ Industrial Services in Apex, North Carolina. I have now obtained a copy of the actual complaint filed against EQ Industrial Services in the Superior Court of North Carolina on Friday, October 6, 2006. The complaint was filed “on behalf of thousands of North Carolina residents” by the national class action law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, whose offices are located in Washington, D.C, Chicago, IL, and New York, NY, in partnership with the Raleigh North Carolina based firm of Brady, Nordgren, Morton & Malone. Please see below to download a copy.

~ SPECIAL REPORT: Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against EQ Co. for NC Chemical Fire

Talk about not wasting time…

A suit has already been filed against the EQ Industrial Services for the Chemical Release, and fire (which is Still Burning) in Apex, North Carolina.

Reportedly a large amount of toxic chemicals identified by officials as Chlorine Gas was emitted from the Hazardous Waste Facility on Thursday night around 9 p.m. Eastern Time. After the release of chemicals a fire started accompanied by several explosions. HazMat and fire crews were not even able to assess the situation until this morning when the sun came up due to the dangerous nature of the fire.

~ SPECIAL REPORT: Extremely Dangerous Chemical Fire in Apex, N.C. – Evacuations, fire out of control, emissions of Chlorine Gas – UPDATED

UPDATE: 10/8/06 9:00 p.m.

I have posted 2 related entries you all may be interested in;
1.) A class-action lawsuit was filed on Friday on behalf of the residents of Apex, and others affected by this disaster. This post contains a news release from the law firms involved: “Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against EQ Co. for NC Chemical Fire“

2.) I’ve posted a copy of the complaint filed which is available for download in .pdf form, also included is a link to the website which the lawfirms are creating to answer questions and obtain more information about the lawsuit. Please see: “Copy of Complaint Filed Against EQ Industrial Services in RE: Fire in Apex, NC”

(I hope to create a “Focus Page” related to this incident within the next few days that will combine all relevant information and more links.)

UPDATE: 11:00 a.m. Central Time:

PRESS CONFERENCE NOTES:

Keith Weatherly (SP?) – Mayor…

Greatful for the level of cooperation between agencies.

HazMat team has been on site. The building has collapsed. Still a fire on premesis. Going to bring in some video equipment to assess the fire to figure out how to put it out.

Advise folks as they return back to their homes (hopefully soon) make sure the pets if they are experiencing nausea or bleeding to get checked by vets.

Fire is still underway. (Bad technical problems)

UPDATE: 10:00a.m. Central Time:

[To the right is a current picture of the town of Apex which looks literally deserted at this point. The picture is from a webcam which you can view here. The downtown area is closed, and at least half of the town (about 16,000 people) have been evacuated from their homes. Click on the picture to see a full-size version.]

I am attempting to catch up on what has occurred this morning in regards to this hazardous situation. Here is a link to an updated news article from WCNC-TV (NBC) – “Thousands Evacuated From Raleigh Suburb Due to Hazardous Fire”

There are reportedly dozens of agencies on the site. It is apparently raining – scattered showers – in the area right now. It is good because it is “scrubbing the air” with the numerous hazardous chemicals from the fire… However, now the pollutants will now be brought down to the ground and can contaminate the soil, as well as waterways.

Perhaps the scariest thing is that they don’t know what all is in the smoke/air from the fire. EQ is a hazardous waste materials plant that stores smaller amounts of waste materials to make “full loads”. There are numerous chemicals stored in this facility in varying quantities. There is apparently an updated list on site, but obviously that is useless. A state agency one reporter spoke with said this plant is inspected four times a month, with the last inspection occuring just a week ago.