400-litre sulphuric acid spill prompts emergency response in Hamilton

On early Tuesday morning, a specialist hazardous unit was called to contain a 400- litre spill of sulphuric acid in Hamilton, Stuff has reported.

Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) responded promptly after the call at 5 am.

Five crews from Hamilton, Te Rapa, Chartwell and Hukani and approximately 25 firefighters were sent to the scene at Clow Place, Melville to contain the hazardous chemical.

An employee at High Tech Plastics Limited said firefighters responded to the incident “right in front of us” but was not sure what caused the chemical spill.

“I couldn't see anything, I wasn't privy to any of that. There were a lot of appliances on Clow Place itself, but where the spill was located, I’m not the entirely sure to be honest,” as quoted by Stuff.

“But we weren’t severely impacted in any way. FENZ were fantastic, to be honest, they allowed us to park and walk to our work site and were very helpful,“ Stuff quoted the employee as saying.

Branch administrator Candice Stacey said staff at Komatsu Waikato couldn't drive into the company’s parking lot due to the chemical spill and had to park on the street side

“But other than that I didn’t personally see anything.”

“Some of the workers that were here did see some people, they came here earlier and they saw that there was an issue.” Stuff quoted as saying.

A Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) shift manager told Stuff, the crews left the scene after containing the spill.