Businesses evacuate, school lockdown after vapor release
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Five businesses were evacuated, and a school and head start program went under lockdown Monday following a chemical spill.
The chemical, ethyl acrylate, was released around 10 a.m. from a tanker at Dana Transport, Inc. The company cleans tankers and a vapor form of the liquid chemical released during a cleaning.
Ethyl acrylate is used in latex paints and is highly flammable.
"When they released the tanker by the top domes, it released the vapors out to the outside air," said Calvin Bishop, a battalion chief with the Fayetteville Fire Department.
The vapor caused burning eyes, difficulty breathing, vomiting and headaches for several people working in the area. Bishop said two people were sent to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center with those symptoms and six others were treated near the scene.
Fire officials asked Cumberland County Schools to keep 400 students indoors from Walker-Spivey Elementary and the Head Start on Fisher Street. They believed the vapor irritation threat was gone after noon, but kept the kids inside all day as an extra precaution.
"A neighbor came to the door and told me about the spill so I came to get the children," said Walker Spivey parent, Quinyetta Riley. "But the school said it was okay, because it wasn't harming the children."
Around 11:20 a.m., fire officials detained an ABC11 crew and a Fayetteville Observer reporter for a short time due to exposure to others who had been in contact with the vapor. The journalists were let go after ten minutes, and were no longer advised to seek treatment.
Winds traveling north to south eventually cleared the vapor stench from the air, and the mile-radius zone between McDuffie Street, Eastern Boulevard and Fisher Street.
A Dana Transport, Inc. manager declined to comment on the leak Monday afternoon, but company employees were back to work by noon.
