3,000 Evacuated During Cyanide Burn-Off

More than 3,000 people left their homes Sunday while a hazardous waste crew blew up a corroded tank believed to hold up to 30 pounds of deadly hydrogen cyanide.

A fire was started after the explosion to burn off the tank’s contents. Shortly after the explosion, Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Harold Yates said that “no air readings indicated any hydrogen cyanide down wind.”

As little as 50 milligrams of the hydrogen cyanide, or less than one-sixth the weight of the average aspirin tablet, can kill.

EPA officials had not been certain of the tank’s contents, so analysts will examine a videotape of the explosion to look for a telltale purplish corona, which indicates the presence of hydrogen cyanide, surrounding the main body of the flame.

The 4-foot-long cylinder was abandoned at the site of the defunct Artel Chemical Co. plant, now a federal Superfund cleanup site, with 3,400 other drums and barrels of hazardous materials, many of them unidentified.