South Campus evacuated again by chemical spill

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