Caustic Cloud Forces More Than 200 to Evacuate Homes in Chino

More than 200 Chino residents were evacuated from their homes and seven people were briefly hospitalized for lung and eye irritation Saturday, after a caustic cloud rose from an industrial complex where unidentified chemicals were being mixed.

Those hospitalized, including five police officers, were treated and released.

Police said the white-colored cloud escaped as employees of General Chemical Corp., 5568 Schaefer Ave., were combining a batch of chemicals. The employees fled the building, then notified police and fire officials, said Sgt. Ron Zerr of the Chino Police Department.

Because of unpredictable wind patterns, police evacuated all homes within a quarter-mile radius of the plant. Zerr said residents of the upper-middle-class San Bernardino County neighborhood about 35 miles east of Los Angeles remained calm.

‘Under Control’

“The situation was under control,” he said. “There was no panic.”

Residents were allowed back into their homes at 3:15 a.m., after environmental health officials determined that the cloud was not poisonous.

On Saturday, Chino police could not say exactly what is manufactured at General Chemical, although they did say that the plant mostly deals in acids and solvents, not toxic compounds.

A man who answered the telephone at General Chemical refused to say anything about the company, which was incorporated in 1973.