A chemical mishap forced hazmat crews to rush to Huntington Beach on Wednesday.
Officials say a chemical was accidentally mixed with another one in a 55-gallon drum, causing the drum to heat up in an “exothermic reaction,” according to NBC LA.
The mix happened at a business in the 15200 block of News Boy Circle. A street nearby was shut down.
“Firefighters and hazardous materials specialists are actively assessing the situation, identifying the hazard, and developing a mitigation plan to safely resolve the incident,” the Huntington Beach Fire Department said.
No injuries have been reported.
The mix had been “successfully mitigated” by around 12:45 p.m., according to the Huntington Beach Fire Department.
“The Huntington Beach Fire Department Hazardous Materials Team, with assistance from the Anaheim Fire & Rescue Hazardous Materials Team, worked together to safely identify, contain, and mitigate the hazard,” the department wrote in a Facebook post.
“We appreciate the coordinated efforts of all responding personnel whose teamwork ensured a safe and efficient resolution to the incident,” they added.
The hazardous chemical mix comes weeks after an Orange County chemical leak in May elicited panic among residents and forced evacuations. A failed cooling system may have triggered the dangerous chemical leak at the Garden Grove aerospace facility that led officials to evacuate roughly 50,000 residents over an explosion threat, officials said.
Orange County Fire Authority Chief TJ McGovern said that a pressurized storage tank holding 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a highly flammable liquid used in plastic manufacturing, began heating up after the cooling mechanism stopped working for reasons that have yet to be determined.
