Bomb Squad Explodes Toxic Acids Cache

Workers removing explosive acids from a Huntington Beach commercial-industrial building Saturday found a total of 350 containers, including small bottles of “every kind of chemical you could think of,” a Fire Department spokesman said.

Some of the bottles contained dangerous liquids, and all were scheduled to be removed by today, officials said.

A firefighter making a routine inspection Friday discovered what authorities originally estimated to be 200 containers of chemicals, including explosive picric acid, at Star Die Cast, 15564 Producer Lane.

Employees of a chemical disposing company Saturday were analyzing the substances to determine how they could be safely transported.

Picric Acid Removed

The picric acid--100 pounds of it--was moved and exploded Friday by the bomb squad of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. But the smaller bottles will be moved today to a Class I, state-approved dump for toxics, probably the one at Casmalia, said Capt. Michael Nevins, a hazardous materials specialist with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Nevins said he didn’t know where the picric acid had been taken.

Picric acid, he said, is almost exclusively used for making defense weapons, such as the explosives for high-powered bullets and cannons. It has no pharmaceutical use, he said. Nevins added that there has been no indication that Victor Kuo, who owns the three companies operating at the Producer Lane address, used the picric acid. Kuo apparently was just storing it, Nevins said.

Nevins said Star Die Cast is an import company that buys wrenches made overseas and repackages them for sale in the United States. Nevins said Kuo also operates an investment company and chemical company from the same address. He said the chemical company designation apparently only allowed Kuo to buy chemicals, but that he did not manufacture anything with them at the site.

Disclosure Not Made

Nevins said a Huntington Beach ordinance requires disclosure by companies that store toxic chemicals, and violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor. Kuo also will be liable for paying the private toxic disposal company several thousand dollars to take the chemicals away, Nevins said.

The highly explosive picric acid was found in 55-gallon containers, one of which was leaking, fire officials said. The 350 small bottles of assorted chemicals were stacked on shelves “and looked like the bottles you’d find in a high school chemistry class. . . . Apparently he (Kuo) was just collecting them and not using them for anything,” Nevins said.

The assorted chemicals will be relatively easy to dispose of, he said, because they are in separate bottles.

“If they had been mixed or put in other containers, the job could have taken a week,” he said. “This has made the job of identifying each chemical easier. We can’t remove anything until we know exactly what kind of chemical it is.”

Acquired a Decade Ago

Kuo, 49 and a native of Taiwan, told investigators that he bought the chemicals at an auction 10 years ago for plastics experiments. He did not have permits to store or use the chemicals.

Fred Gaggioli of the Hazardous Materials Unit of the county Health Care Agency, said firefighters who periodically inspected the building hadn’t seen the chemicals because they were in the corner of a rear storage room and not in plain sight.

“You had to be digging around back there to really see them,” Gaggioli said. “That’s why they were never found before.”

Several businesses around Kuo’s company remained closed Saturday, and firefighters cordoned off a small area.

Nevins said the area will remain closed until all the chemicals are removed.