On Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 2:35 PM, 6 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 5 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 1 Hazardous Materials Team, 1 EMS Battalion Captain, 1 Battalion Chief Officer Command Team, 1 Division Chief Officer Command Team and 49 Firefighters, all under the direction of Battalion Chief Manuel Lafarga, responded to a Chemical Investigation at 2250 East Alcazar Street in Lincoln Heights.
First arriving units were quick to gather as much information as was available at the USC Clinical Science Annex. It was discovered that the unidentified substance was isolated to one, single laboratory on the second floor of the two-story facility. The decision was then made by the Incident Commander to safely and quickly evacuate the entire building. However, there were 10 lab workers close enough in proximity to the spill, that warranted brief isolation from the lab. This task was carried-out by Firefighters who all made entry dressed in their appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE's). Subsequently, each of the 10 lab workers and another 14 building occupants (also on the floor at the time of the spill) received body scans with the Hazardous Material Squad's radiological detectors.
As an extra safety measure, a Decontamination Team was also put in place. Thankfully, there were no direct exposures to the spill, all detector readings were within normal limits and no occupants exhibited any signs or symptoms of illness or discomfort. Decontamination, therefore, was not required and all were eventually cleared and released at the scene.
The substance was deemed to be unharmful and of very small quantity (less than 2 ounces). After a meticulous sweep of the entire building and the processing of its occupants, the lab was sealed, the incident declared static and after three hours, was turned over to the Los Angeles County Health and Hazardous Materials Department as well as USC officials.
Adjacent occupancies, while alarmed because of the nature of the incident, were sheltered-in-place briefly, but were not affected due to the strategic management of the incident.
The incident is under investigation.
Submitted by Matt Spence, Spokesman Los Angeles Fire Department
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