A fire in a facility of Momentive Performance Materials at Chempark Leverkusen (www.chempark.com) in Germany on the evening of 12 November took more than five hours to extinguish, but park management company Currenta, owned by Bayer and Lanxess, said there were no injuries and that air measurements revealed that no toxic substances were emitted. Authorities were notified that chemical-laced firefighting water had been discharged into the Rhine river. Shipping activity on a segment of the river was interrupted until the all-clear was given, early on 13 November.

No cause for the accident, which reports said occurred during filling of siloxanes and solvents, had been determined at press time, and no damage estimate published. The US company produces silicones and advanced ceramics and is in the process of expanding capacity for NXT silanes for the automotive industry at the Leverkusen site.

Momentive general manager Matthias Steiner apologised to residents of neighbouring communities, who had been asked to keep doors and windows closed. He said that the cause of the incident would be determined “as soon as possible,” so that it would not be repeated. Residents of neighbouring towns had complained of a strong odour, which Currenta later said was caused by soot formation.

The Leverkusen fire was the second major incident at a large chemical production site in Germany in recent weeks. A deadly blast on 17 October at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site killed four people – Plasteurope.com reported extensively.