Quick clean up after dangerous chemical spill (From Your Local Guardian)

Quick clean up after dangerous chemical spill at Willow Lane Trading Estate, Mitcham

9:54am Thursday 15th September 2011 in Merton By Omar Oakes

A chemicals supplier worked through the night to clean up a dangerous substance which spilled out on to the floor.

Firefighters were called to Reichold in the Willow Lane Trading Estate in Mitcham following a 999 call from a resident about the leak at 8.30pm yesterday (Wednesday).

The spill was discovered to be 800 litres of Stirene, an industrial solvent which is highly flammable and dangerous when it comes into contact with the eyes and skin or is inhaled in significant amounts.

A watch manager at Mitcham fire station said: "They had something wrong with their storage facility and so they spilled a fair bit of it on the floor.

"It was fuming off so some residents were worried because they could smell it. It smelled a lot like glue.

"We went round there and they were sorting out out already. They were soaking it up and disposing of the materials and they would have been working through the night to deal with it."

An employee from Reichold confirmed this morning that the spill cleanup had been completed.

---

Got a story for us? Call 020 8722 6333, tweet @WimbledonNews or email: newsdesk@wimbledonguardian.co.uk.