Camarillo : Flammable Vapors Force Evacuation of Manufacturing Plant

Forty employees were evacuated from a Camarillo manufacturing plant Tuesday when a broken refrigerator caused 300 gallons of acrylic resin in cold storage to warm up and emit flammable vapors.

Medical Materials Corp., which produces orthopedic shoe inserts, was closed just after 8 a.m. when arriving workers detected acrid odors seeping from the walk-in freezer, said Firefighter Bill Reynolds.

Before the plant could be evacuated, one employee complained of nausea and breathing difficulties from inhaling the noxious fumes, Reynolds said. Cristobal Pineda, 22, was transported to Pleasant Valley Hospital, where he was treated and released, said a hospital spokeswoman.

Employees in adjacent buildings were “sheltered in place” during the emergency, remaining inside their workplaces with the windows and doors closed, Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the fumes were a normal byproduct of the curing process for acrylic resin.

Once the reaction is completed, the liquid turns into a solid plexiglass, said David Blakeman, president of the manufacturing firm.

The freezer must have broken sometime after the end of the workday on Monday, Blakeman said. When hazardous-materials team members arrived, they tested the air inside the plant and determined that little of the fumes had seeped out of the storage area.

Before the team could pump out the remaining gases, automated fire sprinklers were triggered inside the locker and helped reduce the chance of a fire, said Sandi Wells, a Fire Department spokeswoman.