Jan. 8, 2003 – Fire trucks and an ambulance were called to St. Thomas Dairies Wednesday morning to investigate a chlorine leak which turned out to pose no threat to health.
According to Priscilla Hintz, the company's marketing director, fumes started coming from a garage containing an old tank containing chlorine about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, creating a "pungent" odor. She said the Fire Service and an ambulance were called as a precautionary measure.
Two employees who may have breathed in the fumes were taken to the Roy L. Schneider Hospital emergency room but were released after it was ascertained they had sustained no respiratory damage.
Hintz said she has no idea what the chlorine in the tank was used for at the dairy, located in St. Joseph and Rosendahl off the Magens Bay road. "It was something we haven't any use for," she said. "It probably hasn't been used in 30 years. We were in the process of disposing of it. It wasn't being touched when the leak occurred."
Fire Service personnel evacuated the plant for about three hours, until about 1:30 p.m., she said, until inspectors from the Planning and Natural Resources Department gave the go-ahead for the dairy workers to return.
"The trucks are rolling, and we are back in business now," Hintz said later Wednesday afternoon.
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