Chlorine Gas Spill Forces Evacuation of School

A green cloud of poisonous chlorine gas spread from a ruptured pipeline at a South Gate plant to a nearby elementary school Friday morning, sending 27 children and 44 teachers, school staff members and industrial workers to hospitals for treatment of nausea, dizziness, lung pain and eye irritation.

About five cubic yards of the toxic gas spewed out of a line at Purex Corp.’s bleach plant at Firestone Boulevard and Rayo Avenue at about 8:30 a.m., according to Los Angeles County Fire Department officials.

The leak occurred when men working on a line that carries chlorine from freight cars to the bleach plant accidentally ruptured the pipe, a spokeswoman for Purex’s parent company said.

The gas formed a toxic cloud and drifted down the block in a southwesterly direction over Tweedy Elementary School, where it fell as a light mist on classrooms and children walking to a school assembly.

Some students were immediately stricken with symptoms of gas poisoning; others did not feel the effects of the gas until more than four hours later, Fire Department officials reported.

Not Life-Threatening

Doctors said that the effects on the youngsters were not life-threatening and that the last of the students and adults hospitalized were likely to be released later Friday night.

Ambulances shuttled back and forth between the school and six nearby hospitals, carrying students to emergency rooms. Most were treated, kept for observation several hours and then released to parents or driven back to school.

Although one of the students and four of the workers from the Purex factory and an adjacent metals plant were at first reported to be in critical condition, reports from the hospitals soon had them upgraded to stable and then good condition after they were treated with oxygen for respiratory distress.

The school’s 390 pupils were evacuated about 9:30 a.m. Those who were not hospitalized were taken by teachers to a park down the street but were allowed to return to classes shortly after noon.

About 1 p.m., a dozen youngsters and school staffers, who still felt ill after being checked by medical personnel from the Los Angeles Unified School District, were loaded into ambulances and transported to hospitals for treatment. They were all reported in good condition and were released later in the day.

The gas hit first at the school’s kindergarten wing, where teacher Victoria Steinitz smelled a foul odor, opened her classroom door and slammed it closed again when she realized, as she said later, that “the air outside was worse than the air inside.” Steinitz told her children, “Put your hands on your noses,” and reported the odor to Principal David Sanchez through an intercom. He telephoned police and county firemen, and ordered the school evacuated.

Neighbors who saw the cloud and parents who had heard radio reports rushed to the school, located in the middle of an industrialized area of South Gate.

“It was a green cloud (that) hovered over the school,” said Rick Cauley, 21, who lives nearby. “It wasn’t thick like fog, but you could see it.”

Cauley said he rushed into the school to find four youngsters “passed out” in a corridor. They were quickly revived by teachers and paramedics.

Those who were not taken to hospitals were escorted to a park, where some were treated by paramedics.

‘My Head Hurts’

“My stomach hurts a lot, and my head hurts,” said Carlos Galan, 11, as he sat on a curb while being administered oxygen.

“It was real smelly and I felt like I was going to throw up,” said Tracy Rice, 10, who was treated at Downey Community Hospital.

First-grade teacher Maria Hernandez, 28 and seven months pregnant, was taken by ambulance to Rio Hondo Hospital in Pico Rivera. Minutes before paramedics took her away, Hernandez said, “my kids were coughing and complaining about headaches.” She said she felt “a numbness.”

Fire Department officials declared the campus safe at 10:15 a.m. and said afternoon complaints of some students and staff who said they felt ill were a “typical delayed reaction.”

Parents, who came to the school after hearing reports of the gas spill, were both angry and frightened.

‘Didn’t Do It in Time’

Sal Ordorica, 27, rushed to the school to pick up his 9-year-old nephew, only to find that the child had been taken to a hospital. “They’re not safe,” he said of the children. “People should be evacuated right away, They didn’t do it in time.”

Tweedy Principal Sanchez--who himself was treated for lingering symptoms later in the day--told reporters that the school has an evacuation plan that is practiced monthly. Friday was the first time in his two years there that it has been used in earnest and, he claimed, it worked well.

Doctors who treated the injured said the children were probably in little real danger.

Dr. Mark Light, assistant director of emergency services at Lynwood’s St. Francis Medical Center, said the chlorine “could be lethal to those at the immediate scene.” He said “direct, very close contact with the gas is very, very dangerous.”

But the children brought into St. Francis’ emergency room had “minor symptoms, probably because they were a distance from the plant” and were probably “in no danger at all.”

350 Employees Evacuated

Pam Good, a spokeswoman for Dial Corp. in Phoenix, which owns Purex, said 350 employees were evacuated from the plant and returned to work 90 minutes later.

She said “a small amount” of chlorine in gas form escaped when workmen accidentally ruptured the pipeline, which carries the chlorine from the railway container car in which the chemical is shipped.

While in the container car, she said, the chemical is in a liquid state but it vaporizes as it is pumped through the pipe into the plant.

The chlorine is used in the manufacture of Purex, the household bleach, one of a number of products made at the plant. The plant also manufactures detergent products for laundries and dishwashers.

Good said she could give no further details about the accident until an investigation is completed.

Times staff writers Bob Baker, Jerry Belcher, Lee Harris and Carmen Valencia contributed to this report.