Chemical Spill Scatters Workers

ORANGE — More than 30 workers were evacuated from an industrial area Thursday after a chemical spill released a foul-smelling cloud from a milling plant, officials said.

No one was injured or became ill, officials said.

Police, five firetrucks and two hazardous-materials units responded to a call around 6:40 p.m. from workers at a Coca-Cola bottling plant who reported a stench and a chemical cloud looming over the ArrowChem plant.

Fire officials said a truck driver was delivering about 4,000 gallons of sulfuric acid to ArrowChem, located in the 1800 block of Batavia Street, when he noticed a leak in the pipe that was pumping the chemical into a storage tank.

As the sulphuric acid was being pumped, traces of nitric acid in the receiving basin caused a chemical reaction, raising the liquid temperature and burning some of the pipelines, Orange Fire Capt. John Jordan said.

“There was a tank to catch the spill, but that also was overflowing,” Jordan said.

Firefighters and hazardous-materials officials spent the night draining the acid from the truck and the storage tank into a plastic vessel for disposal.