100 Mile House Fire Rescue and the District of 100 Mile House would like to inform the public that fire crews are no longer on scene at the hazardous material incident on Seventh Street.
Clean-up crews remain on scene and are expected to be finished by 9 p.m. today (Sept. 22). At that time, access to all businesses and to the Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School (PSO) will be permitted.
Read details of spill response below:
100 Mile House Fire Rescue is currently on scene at a hazardous material spill located at 201 Seventh St.
A semi-trailer containing the hazardous product was being unloaded when the driver observed the spill and reported it, says fire chief Roger Hollander.
The alert came in at 1:50 a.m. on Sept. 22.
The chemical leaked onto the ground and into a nearby parking lot by Big Country Storage, he says, adding it has been identified as sodium hydroxide.
Fire Rescue crews were able to contain the spill to the initial area and prevent the product from entering a nearby sewer drain, Hollander explains.
"No public evacuations were required as the scene has been stabilized and poses no threat to public safety outside the initial localized area."
The spill resulted in the closure of several business on Seventh Street, including Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School.
The Everbridge Notification System was utilized in order to contact much of the public due to many school students coming from areas outside the District of 100 Mile House, Hollander notes.
Students and school staff were told to stay home.
"Unfortunately, some of the notifications were received beyond the originally intended boundaries. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Ministry of Environment representatives are on scene as was a company tasked with cleaning up the site at 2 p.m.
Seventh Street will be closed to all traffic while the removal of the product takes place until further notice.