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SALT LAKE CITY — Hazmat crews are cleaning up a highly toxic chemical that that spilled at a local chemical distributing company.
No one was injured even though six people were in the room of the spill. They were checked out and allowed to go home. Employees said a faulty shelving unit caused the spill.
Salt Lake City Fire received a call just before 9 a.m. of a chemical spill in the RinChem building near 5100 W. 150 South. RinChem is a chemical distributing company, dealing with highly toxic flammable materials.
When firefighters arrived, they found a shelving unit holding one of the toxic chemical, TCIR-ZR8690PB, had collapsed and the bottles came crashing down.
"There were 20 of them that were wrapped in Styrofoam and then stored in cardboard,"said Jasen Asay from the Salt Lake City Fire department. "They were up on a shelf and they think the shelf had some sort of malfunction and the container of the 20 bottles fell."
When the bottles fell, they hit another chemical on the way down, mixing the two. Asay said the chemicals are compatible so there was no reaction. However, crews are dealing with about 10 gallons of the toxic mixture on the floor.
The first chemical that spilled is a resin used in manufacturing flash drives. It doesn't have a recognizable name and is identified by a combination of letters and numbers.
A private company that deals with chemical spills is now on scene ready to clean it up. They say it should take a few hours and employees will be able to resume work when it's done.
