Leaky Acid Tank Dumped in Alley Spurs Evacuation

Los Angeles Police Department officers evacuated residents from three square blocks of South-Central Los Angeles on Monday morning after discovering that a pressurized gas cylinder left in a residential alley was leaking toxic acid, authorities said.

About 100 people were taken to a local recreation center while county hazardous-material teams were called in to stop the leak, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Alex Arriola said. No injuries were reported.

Police launched a criminal investigation after determining that the cylinder was illegally dumped in the alley, LAPD spokesman Mike Partain said.

The Fire Department received an emergency call at 6:40 a.m. saying that a 5-foot-tall cylinder was lying on its side with gas drifting out of a control valve, Arriola said.

When units arrived at the scene near Hooper Avenue and 50th Street, a blanket had been placed over the valve. Firefighters determined that the gas was highly corrosive hydrochloric acid, Arriola said.

“The stuff is an irritant and very fatal if absorbed in the skin or directly inhaled,” Arriola said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Hazardous-materials team members initially positioned the cylinder so that the gas spiraled up and dissipated. Just after 10 a.m., they shut the valve off, Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said.

Residents were allowed to return to their homes at 12:15 p.m., Partain said.

After scouting the area for businesses that might use the gas for industrial purposes, such as making plastics, police investigators concluded that whoever dumped the cylinder had been using it illegally, Partain said.

“The investigators determined that legitimate users of this particular product wouldn’t dispose of the cylinder by dumping it in an alley,” Partain said.

He said there “is an illicit use for this type of product” but he declined to elaborate.