Orange : Chemical Spill Forces Closure of City Streets

Streets were closed and more than 20 cars got an unexpected cleansing Thursday as firefighters mopped up a chemical spill, officials said.

An unknown quantity of a liquid containing 10% sodium hydroxide overflowed from a holding tank at the Aerochem plant in the 1800 block of Batavia Street early Thursday morning, said Tom Groseclose, deputy fire marshal for the Orange Fire Department.

One firefighter and one police officer were taken to a non-emergency clinic and treated for exposure to the chemical, Groseclose said.

“Sodium hydroxide is a caustic solution, corrosive to skin, paint and rubber,” Groseclose said. “There was no environmental hazard to the air. . . . The problem is that it’s caustic and corrosive and it messes up paint and tires on cars and they didn’t want people driving through it.”

Taft Avenue was closed about noon from Main Street to Batavia Street, and Batavia Street was closed from Grove Avenue to Taft Avenue, Groseclose said. The streets were expected to reopen by midnight, he added.

No residents or employees of Aerochem--which etches metals and manufactures parts for the aerospace industry--were evacuated, he said. Two special hazardous materials units, four firefighting units, six police units and officials from the Emergency Management Agency, the state Department of Fish and Game and I.T. Corp., a private firm specializing in cleaning up spills, were involved in the operation.

Cars and streets in the area were hosed off with water and the run-off was removed by a vacuum truck, Groseclose said.