Firefighters ‘Release’ Hazardous Chemicals

Earlier today there was a fire at an industrial manufacturing facility in Brea, CA that reportedly evolved into a hazardous material release incident. No injuries were reported but evacuations were ordered from a residential development adjacent to the facility. Not a lot of details were available in the various news reports (here, here, and here), but it appears that the water runoff from the firefighting efforts resulted in an alkaline material leaving the facility.

The facility manufactures bolts and fasteners for the aerospace industry. Metal processing of this sort involves a number of different hazardous chemicals in the metal preparation and finishing process. The California EPA lists 112 different hazardous materials stored on the site.

A couple of the articles mention ‘alkali soap’ as the source of the potential hazmat release. While the EPA site does not list any materials by that specific name there are three products that probably fall into that category; all three are solid materials from the same manufacturer that contain 50% sodium hydroxide. If the remainder of the solid product were some sort of fatty acid, the materials could certainly be considered ‘alkali soap’. I have been able to find a safety data sheet (SDS)for one of the products and it would appear to be consistent with an alkali soap.

There is nothing in the story or SDS about the packaging that this product would be found in, but solid materials like this are very often packaged in 50-lb paper bags for ease of handling. If this is were the case in this incident the fire-sprinkler system or the fire fighter’s application of water to the fire very easily could lead to runoff that had a high pH; probably high enough to be of concern for incidental contact off site.

A well thought-out hazardous material storage plan would probably want to ensure that materials like this were protected from possible water damage, particularly from firefighting systems. This material is not a fire hazard according to the SDS so overhead coverage of the area where this material is stored would not be a fire safety issue.

As I have mentioned a number of times over the years in posts about fire incidents at chemical storage facilities, a fire safety plan must address the issue of water runoff during fire fighting in any area where chemicals are stored or used. If not, the facility is going to be responsible for an expensive cleanup after the fire is over. I personally know of one facility that had to scrape soil from 3 miles of creek bed to recover chemical runoff from a fire-fighting effort. All of that soil had to be disposed of as hazardous waste.