Wait a year for a FEMA trailer, get it, go inside . . . and it explodes

[bigtree]

Long-awaited FEMA trailer explodes

NEW ORLEANS A New Orleans couple waited nearly a year for a FEMA trailer, only to have it explode minutes after they got inside.

A neighbor says the man appeared to have been burned to the bone on his arms.

Fire officials say flammable vapors somehow ignited, causing an explosion and a rolling wave of fire throughout the trailer. The cause is under investigation.

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=5329686

[onethatcares]

1. is it the same model that rocky has?

I mean, hell, the guy was all happy for his.

[uppityperson]

7. maybe that is what he meant by "millions of FEMA trailers"

the bits, after they explode. :shrug:

[Howardx]

9. rockey's was NOT a fema trailer

he bought it himself and called it a "honorary fema trailer"

"Vaccarella, who now lives in a FEMA trailer outside his flooded home, knows that might be un uphill battle, but, he said, "We'll do the best we can.''

The caravan includes several vehicles, a couple of motorcycles and a trailer Vaccarella borrowed from a friend. He said federal regulations prevented him from towing an actual FEMA trailer."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1966756#1966847

[Greeby]

2. Holy Jeebus

:wow:

[Madrone]

3. omfg

Those poor people!

:cry:

[EFerrari]

4. This sh!t has to end. We have to do some serious taking back of

this huge, insane bureaucracy. Remember when human life meant something in this country?

Oh, man.

[Nicole]

5. This isn't the first one to explode.

What the hell are they building those things with???

[uppityperson]

6. Another one explodes?

This is at least 3 that I have heard of.

[KittyWampus]

24. Is formaldehyde highly flammable? I heard these trailers were VERY high

readings of formaldehyde.

edit- some other DU'ers below were way ahead of me.

[bigtree]

8. another account

August 26. 2006 12:55PM

Long-awaited FEMA trailer explodes

The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - After waiting for a year to have their FEMA trailer delivered, a couple was in it only minutes when exploded, its doors blown open by a ball of fire.

Neighbors said a man stumbled down the steps of the trailer. The flesh on his arms had been seared to the bone, one neighbor said, and he seemed disoriented as he screamed for help.

Fire officials said the victims, identified only as a man, 54, and a woman, 49, had been in the trailer only a matter of minutes when flammable vapors somehow ignited, causing an explosion and a rolling wave of fire throughout the trailer.

Fire officials described the explosion as a "flashover" fire, a quickly igniting, self-extinguishing blast that occurs when combustible vapors accumulate and are sparked by a heat source.

http://www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060826/APN/608260667

[malaise]

10. Good fugging grief

how much more must these people suffer.

[bananas]

11. I wonder if they'll get put on the airplane "banned items" list.

That list gets whackier and whackier.

[uppityperson]

12. can't take FEMA trailers on an airplane? Did I miss something here?

[bigtree]

13. Formaldehyde high in FEMA trailers

Posted on Fri, Aug. 25, 2006

Tests on 52 trailers show 83 percent flunk EPA rule

By MIKE KELLER
[e-mail]
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/15356771.htm?source=rss&channel=sunherald_business

Testing of FEMA travel trailers provided as temporary housing to those left homeless by Katrina continues to show illness-inducing levels of the chemical formaldehyde, the environmental group Sierra Club said Thursday.

The group has now tested 52 trailers in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, with 83 percent registering formaldehyde above 0.1 parts per million, a level the Environmental Protection Agency considers elevated.

Only seven trailers tested below that limit, the group said.

"There is an immediate problem with FEMA trailers," said Becky Gillette, the co-chair of the Mississippi Gulf Coast chapter of Sierra Club. "They said now they will do some testing, but that will not come in time. Try rebuilding your life while being poisoned by the trailer you are living in."

Thad Godish, a professor at Ball State University and an indoor-air quality specialist, said formaldehyde is widely found in particle board, adhesives, furniture and paneling. The chemical, he said, is an irritant that triggers coughing, shortness of breath and headaches. It can induce asthma attacks and upper respiratory, eye and sinus infections. The EPA said it is known to cause cancer in animals and may cause cancer in people.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/15356771.htm?source=rss&channel=sunherald_business


It is combustible.

Flash point: 60C (140F) CC
Autoignition temperature: 300C (572F)
Flammable limits in air % by volume:
lel: 7.0; uel: 73
Flammable liquid and vapor. Gas vaporizes readily from solution and is flammable in air.

[fed-up]

18. the formaldehyde issue was in the news May 18th!

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060518/NEWS/60518005

May 18, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT
Some FEMA trailers unsafe, environmental group says

The Associated Press

GULFPORT — An environmental group says thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi and Louisiana may be living in unsafe conditions after tests it conducted showed dangerous levels of formaldehyde in some government trailers.

The Sierra Club on Wednesday asked for a congressional hearing after it claimed that 30 out of 32 Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers it tested had levels of formaldehyde that were unsafe.

"We started doing this testing because people were getting sick, having nosebleeds and having constant coughs," said Mississippi Sierra Club spokeswoman Becky Gillette. "The government is making people sick. They are putting people back in harm's way."

Gillette said the Sierra Club inserted vapor monitors in 50 trailers, though it said it had only gotten results back from a Florida lab on 32 of the tests. Formaldehyde concentrations were reported within a range of 0.06 to 0.34 parts per million in the air.


...snip





funny, I couldn't find the above story on fema's website...down the memory hole....

http://www.fema.gov/news/katrinanews.fema

[fed-up]

14. this story needs some Recs to get on the greatest page n/t

[uppityperson]

15. true.

my problem is my outrage section is full up, and still it goes on and on. Thank you for the reminder.

[eleny]

16. As if these residents haven't gone though enough

[Olney Blue]

17. This is awful. Trailers are not safe in hurricanes or tornados, either.

[uppityperson]

19. link to story about a couple more FEMA mansion's erupting in flames.

http://www.sttammany.com/news-detail/article/564/second-fema.html

Second FEMA Trailer Fire This Week Claims Life of St. Bernard Man in Slidell (July 2006)

A man in his 60’s died when his FEMA trailer suddenly erupted into flames Friday morning, St. Tammany Parish Fire District #1 Deputy Captain David Huhn said.

A neighbor pulled the man from the burning trailer at a FEMA trailer park located at 2601 Old Spanish Trail in Slidell and administered CPR until firefighters arrived and took over. However, the unidentified victim believed to have relocated to the trailer park from St. Bernard Parish after Hurricane Katrina, was declared dead at the scene, a spokesman from the St. Tammany Parish Fire District #1 said.

Four engine companies responded to the fire. “We contained the fire quickly but these campers go up fast, so people need to know to get out as fast as they can,” Huhn said.

This is the second FEMA trailer fire this week. Thursday, a FEMA trailer occupied by Richard Blades at 72657 Highway 21 ignited around lunchtime. A spokesman for parish Fire District 12 said that they got a 911 call at 12:52 p.m. and that the fire was put out in three minutes by a crew of seven firefighters.

[fed-up]

20. and one below in Slidell-April, 2006

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=4869386

Baton Rouge Fire Department Takes A Closer Look At FEMA Trailers in Baton Rouge
May 8, 2006 05:18 AM


Baton Rouge Fire Department spokesman Robert Combs knows how quickly a fire can destroy a trailer like the ones in the Baton Rouge FEMA Trailer Park.

After a trailer exploded in Slidell three weeks ago, Combs hopes to prevent a similar explosion here.

Investigators re-examined the burned out Slidell trailer on Friday looking for what caused the blast. The explosion severely burned John Meyer, causing him eventually to die.

Investigators don't know what caused the Slidell trailer to explode, but they found one potential danger they're warning about. Fire investigators say gas leak detectors used to detect high propane levels may not be sensitive enough, especially if stove burners inside the trailer are turned on, but not lit.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[uppityperson]

22. why post this here other than blatant hijacking and calling out?

calling other DUers out is against the rules

[Joe Chi Minh]

23. That was very remiss of me.

[bigtree]

25. if you have a moment

would you terribly mind gracing this thread with your thoughts on the topic?

[Joe Chi Minh]

26. There are somethings, enormities, outrages committed by this

neocon regime that just overwhelm me, bigtree. I'm too demoralised to even wonder where to start. This is precisely one such thread, a thread defined within the context of the ultimate outrage Bush has perpetrated, by commission or omission, Katrina, itself.

I find it difficult enough to read thread headers relating to Katrina in passing. Sorry, but that's the way it is with me. If I was there and could walk more than a few hunded yards on level ground or downhill, who knows, someone might have been able to find me some simple job to do, carrying stuff, or something like that, which didn't require too much by way of practical skills.

Why do you two want to make a mountain out of molehill? One little irrelevant post. I don't know what it is with some of you lads. I don't believe it's self-importance, but I think you just need to lighten up a little. My post didn't have a cataclysmically negative on your efforts, but between the three of us, we've managed to interrupt the thread marvellously.