Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 17:07:40 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
Senior Research
Scientist
State of California,
Department of Pesticide Regulation
Integrated Pest
Management
Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to read a story that appeared in the Antelope Valley Press, October 21, 1999 - By BART WEITZEL, Valley Press Staff Writer.
LANCASTER - Residents of a west Lancaster neighborhood were forced into the city streets for more than four hours Tuesday night after being evacuated from their homes.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies evacuated families after a strong stench of pesticide permeated the air and residents began feeling ill.
Deputies initially responded to the neighborhood around 7:30 p.m. after receiving a report of a suspicious odor in the 700 block of West Avenue H-4.
The odor was originally thought to be a gas leak, but a Southern California Gas Co. repairman tested the area and told law enforcement officials the odor was not gas.
As a precaution, deputies evacuated six houses surrounding the odor-permeated area.
The residents were moved to a park adjacent to the nearby Mariposa Elementary School while deputies and hazardous materials crews investigated the smell.
Deputies also blocked off streets surrounding the elementary school. Only area residents were allowed into the neighborhood. Residents who were not evacuated were asked to stay inside with the doors and windows closed until the problem was resolved.
Some children from the six evacuated families took refuge at neighbors' houses, where they could spend the night and escape the cold fall temperatures, which dipped into the mid-30s.
The evacuated adults huddled on park benches wrapped in blankets for more than four hours while the scene was probed and determined free from causing any harm.
A garage where the odor was strongest was searched several times by Los Angeles County Fire Department and Health Department hazardous materials crews before they discovered the stench's source.
Apparently a jar of malathion, a pesticide used for agricultural purposes, fell off a shelf in the garage, possibly during Saturday's earthquake. The pesticide spilled on the floor and dried up in Tuesday's afternoon heat.
For some reason, a water purifying system installed in the garage began leaking and got the dried malathion wet. The pesticide mixed with the water, caused a chemical reaction, and created the odor that reportedly caused some residents' nausea.
Hazardous materials crews cleaned up the spill and returned the evacuees to their homes at about 11:30 p.m.
Well Lyndon, you were lucky - no one died this time.............
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
Please!
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