• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Thursday, 5/29/97 South Campus evacuated again by chemical spill ENGINEERING: Canister hooked up to machine source of leak; no one hurt by chlorine fumes

By Michelle Navarro Daily Bruin Contributor For the second time in as many days, the UCLA hazardous materials crew was called upon to clean up a South Campus chemical spill. Yellow police lines and paramedics surrounded the area adjacent to Ackerman turnaround after a chlorine spill, located in the Engineering IV building, was reported to emergency crews at approximately 1:45 Wednesday afternoon. According to NANO electrical research facility manager Steve Franz, the spill originated on the first floor in the NANO fabrication lab, a facility that handles several hazardous materials. "The only people that were affected the most were the people in the lab, and they left immediately after noticing the chlorine smell," Franz said. "Once the smell got out to the other rooms, we tried to get everyone else out as soon as possible." Hazardous materials employees put on the necessary gear and took all essential precautions before entering the building to verify that everyone had evacuated and to investigate the cause of the spill. "As of now, they think it came from a canister that was hooked up to a machine. But they're not sure if the leak was caused by the machine or the canister," said Lydia Kowalski, an administrative officer for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. A cleaning system was set up by the hazardous materials team to pull all the "smells and gases" out of the building, Kowalski said, adding that it was over an hour before anyone was allowed back into the building. Although the chemical produced a strong odor throughout the building, Franz said there was very little risk to the health of those affected by the gas. "The nose is really sensitive to chlorine and it can make the stomach a little sick," Franz said. "We tried to get everyone out as soon as possible, but really there wasn't any damage done." Aside from a false alarm last year, this is the first real incident the NANO lab has reported since its opening four years ago. Steve Tung, a post-lab researcher for the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, speculated that the false alarm was probably caused by a malfunction in the installed sensors that monitor the acids and toxic gases used in the lab. A false alarm is what many students working on labs hoped it would be. Some even ignored the alarm and kept on working. "It's always an issue for students working in labs. They hear the alarm and they think it's on another floor or it's a false alarm. Students just don't want to leave their experiments," Kowalski said. Nonetheless, students were evacuated, creating an excited, chattering crowd under shade of the trees at the Ackerman turnaround. "The (hazardous materials) team did a good job of getting together and coordinating it," Kowalski said. "Hopefully this will make students and faculty aware that in emergencies, they must get out of the building." Previous Daily Bruin Stories: Nitric acid spill forces South Campus evacuations, May 28, 1997