aclark@s-t.com
SouthCoastToday.com
November 02, 2010
NEW BEDFORD — Keith Middle School is closed today after a smoky fire broke out Monday night in a first-floor science prep room, where hazmat crews earlier in the day had cleaned out an acid wash tank which had filled with chemicals several weeks ago.
"It appears that there (were) some chemicals involved in the fire," Fire Chief Brian Faria said. "Smoke was going on three floors of the building."
At press time, the chemicals had not been identified.
At 10:20 p.m., Southcoast Hospitals spokeswoman Joyce Brennan said 10 firefighters had come in to be checked out. "They (are) all expected to be treated and released at this time."
As emergency personnel investigated the cause of smoke reported by school custodial staff shortly before 7 p.m., they identified the source as a fire in a first-floor science room, District Fire Chief Scott Kruger said.
He said the fire appeared to be caused by a chemical reaction.
The fire was contained to that room, and Faria said it was put out with portable extinguishers.
"At that time, there was the realization that there were some chemcials here, so the firefighters that were on the scene evacuated the building (and) called for the state hazmat team," Faria said.
There were no immediate reports of any injuries and at around 8 p.m., Faria said no one had complained of any symptoms. As a precaution, however, they were "being hosed down ... in case there's particulates in the smoke," he said.
At the scene Monday night shortly before 9, Mayor Scott W. Lang said St. Luke's (Hospital) had been put on alert "that there may be people coming over if in fact it's something that develops or progresses during the evening."
At that point, there were no reports of "respiratory problems. ... No one has any eye irritation problems, anything like that," the mayor said.
The school suffered very minimal, if any ,damage, Lang said.
Larry Oliveira, the school district's chief administrator for finance and operations, confirmed the fire was in the same room where in mid-October an "acid wash tank" prep room filled with chemicals, causing a class of 22 to move to an auditorium.
The tank collects any water or chemicals from experiments in the science lab. Periodically, it needs to be emptied, but "routine maintenance was not done and there (were) some vapors coming back up from one of the eye wash sinks."
Oliveira said tanks in the east and west side of the building were cleaned out Monday during a professional development day when there were no classes.
According to Lang, a company named Clean Harbors did the work. He said workers from the company were due back to analyze what had happened, determine why, and make sure it doesn't happen again.
"We need to make certain that there are no more chemical reactions, obviously," he said, adding that officials need to make certain the air in any part of the building isn't contaminated. "We're going to err on the side of caution and not have school (Tuesday), go through it with a fine-toothed comb."
Last month, Oliveira stressed moving the class to the auditorium was unrelated to the well-documented history of the Parker Street waste site.
"It has nothing to do with the toxic waste; it has nothing to do with PCBs," he said at that time.
Located on the site of the 104-acre former Parker Street burn dump, Keith Middle School has been a target of controversy since its construction a decade ago. Contamination discovered there in 2000 has been remediated, officials have said.
However, Brenda Mattos, who lives nearby at 110 Greenwood St. and has been an ardent critic of the city's handling of pollution at Parker Street, isn't convinced.
"I wouldn't be surprised if this school blew up some day," she said. "There's so much toxins under here, that I wouldn't be surprised at all."
As of about 9:30 p.m., officials hadn't determined what chemicals had caused the blaze, but with hazmat crews on scene, Kruger predicted a long night.
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