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For those Louisiana residents, whether you live in Lake Charles, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Kentwood or any other of the great cities across this state, looking for more information on their possible personal injury claim, check out our blog dedicated to these legal matters:

Louisiana Personal Injury Blog

This blog discusses the legal issues relating to Admiralty/Maritime law, Animal/Dog Bites, Car Accidents, Chemical/Industrial Spills, the intricacies of Expert Testimony, Insurance Disputes, employee rights under the Jones Act, Legal Duty, Civil Lawsuits, Criminal prosecution, Medical Malpractice, Mesothelioma/Asbestos, Motorcycle Injury, Negligence, Offshore Accidents, Product Defects, Chinese Drywall, Strict Liability, Workers' Compensation and Wrongful Death. All of these issues are crucial to citizens rights and residents of Louisiana.

To better understand the complexity of the law, contacting an attorney is crucial. However, to get a better understanding of the general issues, we hope this resource is invaluable. Feel free to browse this legal resource dealing with a variety of harms or damages you may have suffered in order to understand how your issue matches up with the law.

If you would like to speak with an attorney, check out our contact information. We represent Louisiana residents across the state and would be happy to discuss with you how to move forward with your unfortunate circumstances.

According to Baton Rouge's Advocate, the chemical fire earlier reported is currently under control by the roughly 100 firefighters on the scene. Firefighters from Ascension Parish, East Baton Rouge Parish and others responded promptly to the incident and represent the multi-Parish effort being undertaken to combat the giant blaze.

Photo courtesy of The Advocate

The blaze, reportedly visible from as far away as Baton Rouge, was caused by a fire that sprang up within a chemical factory located in Denham Springs. Flames are reported to have risen as high as 30 or more feet into the air even after some three hours and the fire, for the most part, dying down. The fire was fueled by some of the man 55-gallon drums of chemicals being stored at the facility.

The Department of Environmental Quality in both New Orleans and Lafayette were on standby in vase they were needed. Coco Resources, the facility the fire occurred at, stored a number of chemicals in the factory and remixes recycled chemical materials and sells them to customers. These products include general chemicals, oilfield soaps, and oil and fuel additives.

According to Jeffrey Meyers, division administrator of the Emergency and Radiological Services Division, the variety of chemicals produced at the Coco facility makes air monitoring difficult to conduct.

Per the aforementioned article, the facility has had its share of attention from regulators

However, Simms [DEQ environmental inspection agent] noted in the narrative portion of the inspection report that the facility had been the subject of several enforcement actions in the past but had not been considered a “generator of hazardous waste” by DEQ

These incidences date back as far as 1996 and include two incidences in October of 2001 when odors were detected emanating from a warehouse and led to subsequent DEQ violations.

As of this time, more than 100 people have been evacuated from the area, while no injuries have been reported. The article quotes Perry Rushing, chief of operations for the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, as saying

People living and working in a half-mile radius around the fire had been evacuated. "You basically look at where the fire is on Eden Church Road and the railroad tracks and then make a half-mile radius around it and that’s what we’re evacuating," he said.

One item of note comes from State Fire Marshal Butch Browning, who describes the Coco Resources facility as possessing a "high inventory of petroleum distillates."

While this incident is still being handled, more information will be posted to this blog as it becomes available. In the meantime, the Berniard Law Firm has experience in chemical leaks and is aggressively pursuing a class action against Dow for the leak in Hahnville in June of 2009. With hundreds of clients represented in the aforementioned class action, our firm is willing to discuss the legal rights of anyone affected in this recent incident.

A huge fire has broken out in Denham Springs at a chemical warehouse. 200 people have been evacuated and approximately 100 firefighters are reportedly on the scene combatting the inferno.

The explosion, occurring around 2 p.m. alarmed the local community. Visible from over 20 miles away, even as far as Baton Rouge, firefighters hope to contain the blaze.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

New Orleans' Gambit had an impressive editorial a little while back that outlined how the Dow Hahnville chemical leaks demonstrate the need for a more prevalent presence on the part of state government in overseeing the safety habits of such plants. The Gambit's editorial staff writes

The first Dow leak also exposed communication gaps between emergency officials in St. Charles Parish and their counterparts in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, who said they were not notified until several hours after the event. The leak further revealed that too few residents have registered contact information with the St. Charles Parish emergency alert system. That's a cautionary tale for all residents this hurricane season. Earlier, a power outage at Cytec caused the release of a toxic ammonia vapor, plant authorities say. West Bank residents reported eye and throat irritations before the company gave the all-clear signal.

  Last week's incidents raise public concerns about potential toxic ammonia leaks from a cold-storage warehouse the Port of New Orleans wants to build on the riverfront near the historic French Market. In addition to trying to keep 500 jobs in the city while raising $40 million for the project, officials at the port and New Orleans Cold Storage Inc. (NOCS) must now assure the public that 40,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia can be safely transported, stored and used to blast-freeze chicken packages on the Gov. Nicholls Street Wharf. The proposal has pitted French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny residents against port officials and business interests.

  Unfortunately, the "frozen chicken" fight comes in the wake of a major environmental victory — the closing of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO). By the time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed the manmade shipping channel to navigation — on Earth Day — it was difficult to find any opposition to the move. It's been much harder to find leaders with a vision for offsetting the loss of 1,000 maritime-related jobs and other fallout from the closing of the MR-GO.

For more information on the Dow-Hahnville leak, visit this blog's section dedicated to the incident or click here for a legal timeline of our firm's actions against Dow Chemical.

Yesterday afternoon, a New Orleans judge appointed Berniard Law Firm attorney Jeffrey Berniard to the steering committee for the class action lawsuit against Dow Hahnville case. The committee, including attorneys Madro Bandaries, Rico Alvendia, Gregory DiLeo and Jennifer Eagan will be in charge of and handle all of the major pretrial matters relating to the case. As such, our firm will be at the forefront of issues as they come up and will be looked to by the court to help focus the Plaintiff case.

If you have not already done so, go to our website at DowLeak.comfor more information about joining the class action or having your individual damages looked into by our legal staff.

The Hahnville chemical leak that took place at the Dow Chemical plant is a story that has been getting a lot of traction in New Orleans, throughout the state and even nationally. As residents were exposed to an unknown amount of the dangerous gas without even knowing it, answers are being demanded and true responses should be coming from the company. The state of Louisiana is showing initiative in investigating Dow Chemical for their part in the leak of ethyl acrylate from a tank into the air, thereafter affecting countless people in the Southeastern Louisiana area. The Times-Picayune reports

A state Department of Environmental Quality official said Monday that an investigator has been at .Dow Chemical's Hahnville plantnearly every day to investigate the cause of the the July 7 leak of ethyl acrylate fumes that irritated the noses eyes and throats of residents for miles around.

"He's meeting with Dow people and asking some very tough questions about what happened, how it happened and how can we prevent it from happening again," said Mike Alegro, manager of the DEQ's southeast regional office, Monday afternoon.

The remarks came after an environmental watchdog group is charging that state DEQ officials allowed a problem with three previous leaks of the chemical, starting in October and ending June 15.

"These reports provide further information that Dow has had an ongoing problem with ethyl acrylate and apparently with this tank, and that the Department of Environmental Quality has known about it" said Randy Caruso, a Spatial Analyst for the Bucket Brigade.

"Both Dow and DEQ have failed to take the appropriate steps to get to the root of the problem and protect the public."

State officials said the July 7 release was well below the toxic threshold of 25 parts per million over an eight-hour period.

Hopefully with state action in full force, answers will begin to come forward on how many of these incidences have been happening without Dow disclosing them and just how safe Louisiana is from companies that produce such hazardous chemicals. More information as it becomes available will be posted at DowLeak.com and this blog.

This morning's Times-Picayune released a highly important timeline for the Dow chemical leak on July 7th in Hahnville, as well as provides insight into just how inattentive Dow may have been to the matter at the point of the leak and hours after. The article reports

The EOC's telephone log from the early hours of that morning shows parish personnel wrestling with the decision of whether and where to close off River Road in Hahnville as Dow employees attempted to dampen the fumes.

The parish got the first indication that something was amiss at 3:57 a.m., when an employee at the Shell Chemical plant in Norco, across the Mississippi River, called the EOC and said he smelled an acrylic odor, but that no alarms had sounded at his plant.

Dow personnel initially said they didn't smell the sharp acrylic odor that began wafting over the river toward Norco, but started to look into it.

They later found a fire alarm sounding in a tank holding ethyl acrylate that apparently had begun heating in a chemical reaction that led to the release.

By 4:56 a.m. Dow told the parish that it had the situation under control and was pumping water onto the tank.

But by 6 a.m., residents from Hahnville and New Sarpy were calling the emergency operations center about strong odors that were irritating their eyes.

In addition, the piece notes people are still being affected by the leak physically. It is advised that anyone experiencing health problems contact a health professional immediately. For those involved, we also recommend you looking into DowLeak.com for more information as it becomes available.

Dow-Hahnville's chemical leak may be a returning reality for residents of Southeast Louisiana with bad weather looming. As the 10-day forecast shows thunderstorms in the New Orleans area's future, area officials are warning the smell associated with last Tuesday's chemical leak by the Dow company may return. Per the Times-Picayune,

Stormy weather passing through St. Charles Parish may increase odors from the Dow Chemical ethyl acrylate tank, parish officials said in an recent e-mail alert to residents.

Dow is taking continuing actions to suppress these odors, but residents should call the parish Emergency Operations Center at 985.783.5050 to report an odor.

While this seems unhappy enough news already, a press conference yesterday revealed the Dow chemical leak may be bigger, and more severe, of a problem than first thought. A local activist group brought to the media's attention that leaks have been occurring over several months at the Hahnville plant and leaves a lot for Dow to answer for. Within the same Times-Picayune article is the following

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade said citizens need to be aware of how much of the chemical, which can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, was in the air during the early hours of the incident, which began sometime around 4 a.m. on July 7.

"Dow has tried to play down this release by calling it a bad odor," said Anna Hrybyk, the organization's program manager. "The facts show that people were treated at the hospital because of this accident and that Dow has a serious, ongoing problem with this chemical."

The group held a press conference in St. Charles Parish at the West Bank Bridge Park in Luling earlier today to discuss the incident.

In addition to last week's incident, the company reported airborne releases of fumes from the chemical on Oct. 20, 2008, April 22, 2009, and July 2, 2009, Hrybyk said, citing the organization's inspection of Department of Environmental Quality records.

This mess just keeps getting worse. As always, this blog can be considered a source for news and updates on the matter as they become available so feel free to Bookmark the site for future reference.

The Times-Picayune breaks the following, which details that Dow's Hahnville leak a week ago was not only a surprise incident to the company but, instead, one of a series of leaks that very well may have been avoided. In an article posted on NOLA.com, the Times-Picayune writes

An environmental watchdog group says foul-smelling ethyl acrylate fumes escaped from Dow Chemical's Hahnville plant twice before the July 7 release that sent the odor over much of the New Orleans area.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. to discuss its findings that fumes from the plant have escaped three times since October including last week's event.

The organization claims the company downplayed the effects of the release which irritated the noses and eyes of many residents in the area.

Company officials said fumes from the storage tank containing the chemical were not life-threatening.

Ethyl acrylate is used in the manufacture of plastics and resins.

As more information becomes available, it will be posted on this blog. Obviously this news conference, which is taking place right now, will shed more light on Dow's practices in the Southeastern Louisiana area.

Buried under the news of Dow's chemical leak and cleanup and more people being hospitalized for demonstrating symptoms of exposure to ethyl acrylate, WDSU reports MORE chemical vapors were released during cleanup. Pockets of the ethyl acrylate were again released, adding to the existing smell blanketing parts of St. Charles Parish. In their report on the cleanup taking place at the Dow-Hahnville plant, WDSU mentions

Workers at the plant have been trying since Tuesday to neutralize the chemical and move it to sealed containers. It was during that process that more was released.

"This morning what happened is some of these small amounts of EA that are let out that did not neutralize became exposed to the environment," said Rodney Mallet, of the Department of Environmental Quality.

Officials at the plant said the process could play out for several more days, but no one would commit to a timeline.

To say this is unacceptable is an understatement as it still is unclear just how much damage is done through exposure to this hazardous chemical. More news will be released, surely, as the week goes on.

In further developments regarding the Hahnville chemical leak by Dow Chemical, the tank responsible for releasing unknown amounts of hazardous chemicals into the air has been drained by the company. The Times-Picayune's article on the issue has two interesting points worth noting:

"One drop of [ethyl acrylate] would send everybody running from this room," company spokesman Tommy Faucheux told reporters at a news conference Thursday.

This point is odd because just as Dow keeps insisting no major damage has occurred, their spokesman speaks candidly on just how offensive and harmful the chemical could be in the form of a mere drop.

The second item worth noting is

Parish and company officials say nearby residents may still occasionally get a whiff of the chemical, which is being moved into tank cars to be treated at the company's on-site waste disposal facilities.

Again, this outlines just how harmful and residual the chemicals appear to be, while everyone claims there's nothing to worry about. Not everything seems to add up on the issue but this blog will continue to keep up to date on developments.

Dow has now begun publicly discussing the chemical leak that occurred Tuesday and caused a number of physical ailments throughout the Southeast Louisiana and Metro New Orleans area. In an article by the Times-Picayune, the company takes measures to do damage control and downplay the harm and danger caused by this avoidable incident

Dow Chemical plant spokesman Tommy Faucheux said that "minute pockets" of ethyl acrylate left in a storage tank continue to react and send bursts of the pungent odor into the air in St. Charles Parish.

"It could be days before the air clears completely, he said during a press conference on Thursday at the parish courthouse in Hahnville.

"A reaction in the tank caused it (chemical) to start venting through a seam in the tank, " leading to the smell that resurfaced Thursday and spread to several communities across the parish, Faucheux said.

This blog will be updated as more information becomes available.

In response to the recent chemical leak in Hahnville, Louisiana, by Dow Chemical, the Berniard Law Firm has filed a Class Action complaint on behalf of residents of Southeast Louisiana affected by the leak of dangerous chemicals that occurred on July 7th.

Representing all individuals affected physically, be it through headache, dizziness, nausea, burning of the eyes or other ailments, the class action looks to require Dow to take responsibility for the release of ethyl acrylate into the air from its St. Charles Parish plant. The actions the plant has taken in addressing the public's risk to harm and the closing of River Road in parts demonstrates that an active and dangerous agent was released by Dow and the company bears responsibility for the harms this leak has caused.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, ethyl acrylate is a strong irritant of the eyes, skin, mucous membranes, respiratory system and gastrointestinal tract in humans. As there is no way of knowing the level of ethyl acrylate Dow has exposed the Greater New Orleans area to on the morning of July 7th, action was necessary so as to demand accountability.

Members of the class have been determined to be any persons throughout Louisiana who were exposed to a release of any chemical by Dow on or around July 7th and said release caused to that person injuries, emotional distress, loss of income or the loss of the beneficial use, enjoyment, and exclusive possession of their property, or any other damages that may have been suffered.

For more information, contact the Berniard Law Firm at 504-527-6225 or visit our website at LAClaim.com

The Dow Chemical Plant in Hahnville experienced a chemical spill on Tuesday, leading residents of Southeast Louisiana to experience a myriad of physical ailments while nearby residents were forced from their homes.

Per a NOLA.com article, the spill/leak involved ethyl acrylate, "a chemical used in the manufacture of a wide variety of household and cleaning products." The leak led to a horrific smell that carried all the way into the downtown/metro area as winds and storms carried across the state. According to reports, the plant was notified of the leak around 6 a.m. Tuesday morning and employees and cleanup crews worked through the night to control the matter. However, nearby residents are still unable to return to their homes.

The article further profiles concerns relating to the leak

St. Charles Parish authorities did not say what those safety concerns were, but officials say the chemical can cause nose and throat irritation, nausea or headaches.

Plant and parish officials have not said how much ethyl acrylate leaked after a vent on the 640,000-gallon tank apparently malfunctioned.

"We were getting calls from as far away as St. Bernard Parish," said Anne Rolfes, executive director of The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental watchdog group.

The leak resulted when "the structure of the tank became an issue," according to a Dow news release.

WWL TV reports today that "as of [this morning], Dow officials said they are still working to neutralize the chemical." The article also features a helpful way for New Orleans, Hahnville and other area residents to keep informed on updates regarding this story:

Scott Whelchel, director of Emergency Preparedness for St. Charles Parish, said they have several ways of informing St. Charles Parish residents when they are notified of an alert: they post the information on their website, www.stcharlesparish-la.gov; they post updates on twitter at www.twitter.com/stcharles.gov; they broadcast the information on 1370 AM, the local AM radio station, and they also post the information on the St. Charles Parish government access channel, which is channel 6 on television stations in St. Charles Parish.

One thing very important to note

Parish officials say if the odor is stronger in your home than outside, you should air out your home by using fans to push the odor out. You also can set your air conditioner to stop pulling in air from the outside.

Attorneys at the Berniard Law Firm are still investigating the matter. This blog will follow updates as they become available.