Oregon Firefighters Respond to a Hazardous Material Incident

At approximately 2:25pm today, June 14, 2010, Albany Fire Department responded to a first alarm Hazardous Materials Incident at Oregon Freeze Dry located at 770 29Th Ave SW. Three employees' of Oregon Freeze Dry noticed a chemical reaction happening in the main production area and pulled an alarm. 120 employees were evacuated and three were evaluated for medical reasons. The chemical reaction occurred in the soap storage area of the main production building. The Region 5 Hazardous Material team was activated and firefighters from Corvallis and Lebanon also responded to assist. Several Hazardous Material team members were sent into the affected area to determine what the actual chemical was and what was needed to control the situation. It was determined that a chemical with the trade name Oxidate was involved and that it had begun decomposing for an unknown reason. The container of Oxidate was moved into a cooler area and a clean-up company was brought in to take control of the material. Oregon Freeze Dry is investigating why the Oxidate began to decompose. National Frozen Foods was also evacuated as a precaution.

Twenty Albany Fire Department personnel responded along with three firefighters from Corvallis and three firefighters from Lebanon. There were no injuries.