6 Treated After Exposure to Chemical

Five police officers and one Long Beach resident were treated and released from a hospital early Sunday after being exposed to minute amounts of a white, dusty chemical spilled in a residential area Saturday night, authorities said.

The five officers, as well as an unidentified Long Beach resident, suffered symptoms ranging from irritation of their eyes, noses and throats to vomiting, said Battalion Chief Charles Firth of the Long Beach Fire Department.

Fire officials were first told about 10 p.m. Saturday that a quantity of the chemical about the size of a baseball had been spilled near the corner of 67th Street and Gundry Avenue. Police were cordoning off an area a block away from the spill when they began to suffer effects from the chemical, Firth said.

Residents were ordered to stay inside their homes during the cleanup, Firth said. He said the chemical was suspected to be a common tear gas-like substance called chloropicrin, which he described as a poison frequently used in insect fumigation.

He said an investigation was under way in an attempt to determine the source of the substance.