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Amanda Butterfield ReportingCrews are still cleaning up one of the biggest hazardous spills the valley has ever seen; 13-thousand gallons of hydrochloric acid spilled out of a storage tank.
It's safe now, though hazmat crews aren't done containing the area yet. A holding tank with the acid in it was blown over yesterday evening. It's something crews have never seen before.
No matter who you ask -- this just doesn't happen.
Dennis McKone, Asst. Fire Chief SLC: "This is probably one of the biggest incidents I've seen in my career."
A strong gust of wind tipped a storage tank on its side Wednesday evening.
Dennis McKone: "When you got 13-thousand gallons of this on the ground, that's a big incident."
At one point, crews were worried the tank next to it, full of sulfuric acid, was leaking too; though that didn't happen. The fumes from the one tank were potent enough to knock two firefighters -- suited up in protective gear-- to the ground.
Dennis McKone: "We confiscated all their gear, bag it, sent to factory to see if any problems."
Several blocks were evacuated overnight because of it; that only affected about 70 people who work graveyard shifts. But crews were on standby to evacuate neighborhoods if the wind shifted. It didn't.
This all happened at Brenntag Pacific, a chemical distributor. They're open for business again today. The only change is that hazmat crews are there, and the two tankers have been put out of service, being checked to see if this could have been prevented. Neighbors want to make sure this never happens again.
Ross Andra, Glendell Resident: "Now that they've had this happen, if they can't do something in the future to prevent it, we'd just sooner have them pack up and move out."
Again, no residents were evacuated and those two firefighters are back home from the hospital, just fine.
