Hazardous materials crews and equipment blocked the street in front of a home after a woman inside was overcome by pool-sanitizing chemicals.
It happened in the 2700 block of Grove Street, in a neighborhood just north of the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, July 11, 2012.
District Fire Chief Robbie Minnaert says a resident, who neighbors say is a woman, was inside her house working with grandular chlorine - a sanitizing chemical used for swimming pools - when there was a chemical reaction that splashed onto the resident and contaminated the inside of the house.
When crews arrived on the scene, they found the woman outside in the yard and immediately performed an emergency decontamination on her before she was taken to Genesis West by ambulance.
Crews then blocked off the area, put on protective suits, and went inside the house to examine the spill to make sure it didn't get worse.
"The dangerous gas levels were at the level that is immediately dangerous to life and health outside of the home so our guys were in their self-contained breathing apparatuses right away and they put on suits to protect their skin as well so it was a dangerous situation," says District Chief Minnaert. "It was serious as it gets."
Emergency responders also evacuated one other person and two dogs from the house. They were not hurt. Neighbors were not evacuated.
District Chief Minnaert did not know the condition or what type of injuries the woman had sustained.
