1 Dies, 38 Hurt in Chemical Accident : Industry: An unexpected reaction fills storage vat at Vernon plant with toxic gas. Contamination threat closes 2 emergency rooms to new patients.

One man was killed and at least 38 others were treated at nearby hospitals after a cloud of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas enveloped a storage area at a paper recycling factory in Vernon on Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Emergency rooms at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and White Memorial Medical Center, where the victims were treated, were closed for several hours because of the threat of contamination. Medical personnel who took care of the victims and others who had been near them were temporarily quarantined.

Emergency cases were diverted to other hospitals--including Huntington Memorial in Pasadena and California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The dead man was identified as Malachi Nash, 53, of Compton. County fire officials said he collapsed while cleaning out a vat at the Domtar Gypsum Co. plant with water that apparently had become adulterated with an unknown chemical compound. They said the compound probably reacted with chemical residue in the vat, releasing the lethal gas.

The two most seriously injured survivors were overcome by fumes while trying to pull their stricken co-worker to safety, officials said.

Csaba Elekes, 39, of Tujunga, was treated at County-USC before being transferred in critical condition to Northridge Hospital Medical Center for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. Sergio Sanchez, 46, of Los Angeles, was admitted to White Memorial, where his condition was listed as fair.

Other employees, paramedics and firefighters suffered nausea and skin irritation from the gas during rescue efforts. None of their injuries were considered serious.

“You don’t even know you’re breathing it,” said county Fire Capt. John Maleta. “It kills the senses.”

Fire officials said the gas cloud was released shortly before 8 a.m. as Nash--described by co-workers as a veteran Domtar employee who had done the same job many times before--was hosing chemical residue from the walls of a large concrete pulp storage vat with recycled water that had somehow become contaminated.

“The chemicals dry against the walls,” said a co-worker, Fernando Datra. “The water . . . reactivated the chemicals. Something went wrong.”

Domtar officials declined comment on Tuesday’s incident.

Overcome by fumes, Nash collapsed unconscious in the pool of water that was collecting at the bottom of the vat, fire officials said. Elekes and Sanchez crawled in through a hatchway in the lid of the vat in an attempt to help Nash, but both were rendered helpless.

Vernon Fire Department Battalion Chief Arnold DeBoer said his men arrived at the plant at 2116 E. 55th St. moments later to find Nash lying face down in the water. The other two men were “incoherent and semiconscious,” he said.

All three victims were dragged away and given oxygen. Nash was pronounced dead at the scene.

In addition to firefighters from both the county and Vernon, paramedics and safety officials from Cal/OSHA and the South Coast Air Quality Management District were dispatched to the plant.

Initial reports from the scene left county medical officials uncertain about what they were dealing with.

Only when the first victim--Nash--was en route to White Memorial did the county’s Medical Alert Center learn that toxic chemicals were involved. This led to the quarantining of the emergency rooms at White Memorial and County-USC Medical Center.

At 8:56 a.m., the first ambulance was ordered to County-USC. It arrived in about 10 minutes and doctors, aware of a possible chemical contamination but not knowing its type, met the ambulance on the ramp and hooked Elekes up to a respirator. Paramedics, who had found him barely conscious and gasping for breath, had been using a manual pumping device to force air into his lungs on the ride.

Elekes was rushed into the emergency room, as were three more victims who came in the next ambulance sent to County-USC. At this point, Dr. Joseph Morales, head physician, recommended that the emergency room be closed off from the rest of the hospital and that the room be closed to other patients until the chemical--and its potential for contagion--were identified.

The hospital administration ordered that done, and the alert center put out a rare message to the 76 other hospitals in the county emergency network: County-USC emergency room was closed because of “internal disaster.” White Memorial’s emergency room also was shut down.

All of the remaining injured workers were taken to County-USC--the main trauma center for east Los Angeles County. Elekes was transferred to the hospital in Northridge, where it was hoped the pressure chamber would force oxygen into his blood, which had been severely deoxygenated by the toxic gas.

In low concentrations, hydrogen sulfide gives off a characteristic rotten egg smell. But at higher levels, the gas deadens olfactory tissues and cannot be smelled at all, medical experts say.

In very high concentrations, inhalation can result in coma and death within a few seconds. Hydrogen sulfide blocks the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the brain, heart and other vital organs. In addition, it poisons the body’s tissues.

Co-workers said that apparently is what happened to Nash. They described him as a hard-working man who spent much of his spare time doing church work.

“Everyone called him The Preacher,” said Frank Millender, 57, of Los Angeles.

“Who would have thought this could happen to him?” said Harry Alexander, one of the employees taken to County-USC. “This has never happened there before.”

Larry Nixon, 54, of Los Angeles, recalled a conversation several workers had with Nash before work Tuesday.

“I was standing at the time clock with him, and someone asked how everybody was doing,” Nixon said. “One guy said he was hanging on with both hands.

“And The Preacher then says, ‘I’m hanging on with one hand, and I don’t know how long I can hang on that way.’

“An hour later, the guy is dead.”

Times staff writers John H. Lee, Larry B. Stammer, Hector Tobar and Irene Wielawski contributed to this story.

A Look at Hydrogen Sulfide

Here is a description of the gas released in Vernon accident. Characteristics

Gaseous, extremely toxic, flammable, colorless; at low concentrations has odor similar to rotten eggs.

Use in Industry

Used in paper recycling, in the manufacturing of other chemicals, in metallurgy and as a chemical testing agent.

Toxicity

* At extremely high concentrations, above 1,000 parts per million: Coma and even death can result within a few seconds after it is inhaled.

* At high concentrations, 800 to 1,000 p.p.m.: Death can result within half an hour. Experts say that the poison is so insidious that the sense of smell may fail to give warning of high concentrations.

* At lower concentrations: Levels above 300 p.p.m. are considered dangerous to life or health if exposure lasts more than half an hour. Symptoms at this level may include headache, dizziness and diarrhea. Levels between 20 and 150 p.p.m. can produce irritation of mucous membranes and depression.

SOURCE: Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials

Compiled by Times researcher Michael Meyers