Fire crews respond to chemical plant
JANESVILLE An adverse reaction when mixing chemicals Tuesday night caused $50,000 damage to a $3.3 million reactor at Evonik, formerly Degussa Goldschmidt Chemical. Janesville fire and police were dispatched at 8:52 p.m. to 900 S. Palm St. for an automatic alarm with water flow activation. Employees met firefighters at the company’s gate entrance telling them there was a pressure reaction. The reactor is not housed in the main building but in one of 9 others on the site. Once inside the area where employees mix chemicals to formulate the final product, firefighters found scorching on the reactor vessel and a skylight blown out, said Craig Jones, shift commander at the Janesville Fire Department. Fire crews also found some smoldering around a metal door, on the roof of the reactor, so they had to disassemble a door and framework to get to that area, Jones said. It still is not known why the pressure reaction set off.
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