La Habra officials still aren’t saying what exactly caused a large chemical cloud over the neighborhood around city hall earlier this month – a hazardous material situation that prompted temporary evacuations for some residents living near the leak in the western part of town.
Yet on Sept. 11 officials with a local company, Shepard Bros, took responsibility for the cloud and offered residents key details.
Last week, city council members were given a public update on the recent chemical cloud – one that still left key questions – such as what caused orange and yellow fumes to leak from a manufacturing facility in the city – unanswered.
What is Known About the Chemical Cloud?
On Sept. 8 at 11:45 a.m., the La Habra Police Department received calls of yellow and orange fumes coming from the area of Cypress and Lambert. The police department, along with the LA County Fire Department, quickly identified a chemical leak.
The presentation, given by La Habra Police Chief Adam Foster and LA County Fire Division Four Assistant Chief Chris Siok, answered questions on response times, evacuation orders and tactics that helped keep people safe from the potentially dangerous fumes in the air.
“I just want to say, I’m sure the whole community joins me in expressing our gratitude and appreciation for very well handled incidents. It was really very impressive,” said Councilmember Daren Nigsarian at the Sept. 21 council meeting.
However, the city presentation didn’t detail what caused the leak and which company was responsible for it, with officials noting the cause of the leak is still under investigation.
While the police and fire departments declined to state where the leak came from, Shepard Bros. – a chemical manufacturer specializing in food and beverage safety – released a statement on Sept. 11 describing what happened at their facility.
“On Tuesday an isolated reaction occurred during our scheduled production batch of a diluted acid cleaner used in food production cleaning. With abnormally warm ambient temperatures, an unanticipated oxidation reaction occurred which liberated NOx (a group of nitric oxides),” the statement reads.
The Shepard Bros. release says 40 employees were evacuated due to an “abundance of caution.”
This is the second hazmat incident in Orange County this year following an evacuation of over 50,000 residents due to a chemical tank in Garden Grove that emergency response officials say almost exploded.
While Shepard Bros officials insist the plume was non harmful, La Habra Police Chief Foster said the police department was quick to evacuate Washington Middle School – which sits less than a mile away from the manufacturing company responsible.
“While LA County Fire was bringing in additional resources, La Habra Police Department assisted La Habra City School District in actually evacuating Washington Middle School. That wasn’t on an order, that was a determination by us because of the lift that that is,” he said at last Tuesday’s meeting.
According to LA County Fire Department Assistant Chief Siok, about two dozen firefighters initially responded to the chemical leak with eight units – including a hazmat task force. He noted that the department quickly added more pieces of equipment and firefighters on-scene – totalling out to 37 firefighters responding to the incident.
The police and fire departments worked together to isolate the leak and deny entry to people trying to go near the facility.
“We were able to also, initially, using our emergency response guy, put an advisory out in a one mile radius around the facility itself and were using ‘shelter-in-place’ as a tactic,” Siok said during the presentation.
“As the police chief said, we were in unified command. We established command posts just south of the incident.”
Update on the La Habra Heights Fire
Foster and Siok also gave an update to city council on a recent brush fire in La Habra Heights that burned around 17.2 acres – injuring two people and destroying two homes and an outbuilding on Sept. 14.
“The fire was in receptive fuels that hadn’t burned in probably over 80 years and it was topography-driven on a very steep slope. So that initial home was impacted very quickly,” Siok said.
The police department responded to the incident by helping the city of La Habra Heights close down Hacienda Road to control traffic in the area. A few officers were posted to be deployed to help out with evacuations if needed.
However, the fire was contained in about two hours and officers were able to return back to La Habra, according to officials.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Sara Leon is a Voice of OC reporting fellow. You can reach her at sleon7903@gmail.com.
