The Bluegrass Emergency Response Team received its first test yesterday when representatives from the 11-county group responded to a chemical problem at a Bourbon County factory.
Early yesterday, workers at CMC/CLA in Paris inadvertently mixed chemicals that created a cloud inside the building, where workers manufacture motor vehicle wheels.
"It was a chemical with quite a potential for personal harm," said Maj. Harold Hoskins of the Lexington fire department, one of the agencies that responded.
Workers were evacuated while members of the response teams measured the atmosphere for harmful agents. No one was seriously injured. Hoskins said that by the time his monitors entered there was nothing remaining, as the chemical probably "for the most part naturally stabilized."
He credited the members of the regional response team for the handling of the situation. "In the post-9/11 world, there's been a lot of money coming down to handle these types of events, and it went as expected," he said. "It was good to see these response agencies came together and did the job."
Distributed by the Associated Press
