Worker injured in flash fire at California Amgen facility
17 May 2013
A worker at an Amgen research facility in South San Francisco has been hospitalized after a "flash fire" involving hazardous materials. "There was a flash fire at the research facility there," spokeswoman Ashleigh Koss said. "There was an incident with a flammable liquid." There was no report on the worker's condition.
According to the San Mateo County Times, the worker was collecting hazardous materials when the fire ignited. It said he worked for a waste disposal and cleanup company. Koss said the fire department was called and the facility was temporarily evacuated.
Fires and explosions at pharma manufacturing facilities are not unusual, while there are few reports of events at research facilities. An explosion last year at a Teva Pharmaceutical Industries plant in Croatia killed four workers and injured 17 others. A fire in a boiler room at a Sandoz plant in Boucherville, Quebec, did not cause injuries but exacerbated a shortage of one of the products made at that Novartis plant.