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Oct. 12--It isn't often that sandwich meat causes a hazmat response.
"You have to treat every situation like it is the real thing until you know otherwise," said fire inspector Kayla Holiman of the Yuma Fire Department. "The same precautions are always taken, no matter what the substance turns out to be."
Holiman said the incident began at about 11 a.m. Sept. 26 when a U.S. Postal Service truck pulled into Fire Station 2 to have firefighters check a package that was leaking an unknown liquid. "The station he stopped at actually houses our Hazardous Materials Team, so that was convenient."
Firefighters took all of the usual precautions, she said, such as X-raying the package and taking its pH levels. They also contacted the person it was being shipped to for possible information about its contents.
Several other agencies also responded to the fire station to provide assistance.
Holiman said firefighters determined what was inside the package, and that it posed no danger, before they opened it.
Once opened, the package turned out to contain pickled bologna.
James Gilbert can be reached at [email protected] or 539-6854.
