A hazmat team responded to a plastic fabrication company at 1450 South Chillicothe Road in Aurora on Saturday after employees at the company reported a production machine was releasing hydrogen chloride.
Assistant Chief Matthew McBirney of the Aurora Fire Department said employees at the factory were evacuated, but technicians wanted to turn off the machine that was producing the gas. McBirney said he and other firefighters thought that was unsafe, so they called in the hazmat team to come in with full hazmat suits and masks to turn off the machine safely.
A representative from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency also responded to the scene, took tests of air quality around the factory and didn’t find anything that would endanger the public, McBirney said.
He said he had since spoken with factory officials, who called in another company to make the building safe for the employees.
The incident began around 10:15 a.m. and lasted for about four hours, McBirney said.
