Ammonia leak causes brief evacuation

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- An ammonia leak forced a three-hour and fifteen-minute evacuation in the neighborhood near a warehouse used by Kraft Foods Thursday night.

The leak was caused by a broken copper tube.

Residents in the southern 1600 and 1700 blocks of Franklin and Washington Streets were evacuated beginning at 6:15 p.m. They were allowed to return to their homes around 10 p.m. after air quality readings were taken.

The warehouse is leased by Kraft Foods in New Ulm to store cheese, and a Kraft representative said the cheese was tested and found uncontaminated.

The warehouse is owned and operated by Heymann Construction of New Ulm.

New Ulm police and fire departments received a call at 6:11 p.m. from a house on Hauenstein Drive.

Dan Beranek, the Hauenstein Drive resident who called the fire department, said a night maintenance man alerted him to the incident.

New Ulm Fire Chief David Wolf said firemen entered the warehouse wearing masks and oxygen tanks due to the gas' high flamability.

Firefighters took three hours to bring the amount of gas down to a safe level. They used water fog to attract it and bring it down to the ground.

Wolf also said it is standard practice to evacuate an area when responding to a leak.

The pipe leaked for about 20 to 30 minutes before the gas was reported, he said. It leaked from the chiller room into the cooler room.

Wolf also said the cooling system is owned by a company in Marshall which sent a team to repair the pipes around 10 p.m.

The fire department left its fans and a pumper truck to keep the gas from escaping the building.

According to a New Ulm police report, the ammonia smell "was extremely strong for about a block and a half south of the warehouse."

Ammonia gas, when inhaled, can cause suffocation and even death if it isn't greatly diluted by air.

Wolf said the escaped gas collected mainly over a small pond in South Park.

John Heymann of Heymann Construction, the company who owns and operates the refrigerated warehouse, said Kraft had used it for 31 years without incident.

He said that the cooling system only contains about 30 to 40 pounds of ammonia gas.

"If it all had escaped, it still wouldn't have been a major pollution problem," he said.

State law requires companies to submit reports to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency after accidents that release potentially toxic materials into the environment.

Heymann said he did not contact the Environmental Protection Agency because the amount of gas released was less than 100 pounds.

Heymann said a plumbing company fixed the broken pipe.

"I was very impressed with the way the fire department and the police department reacted," said Beranek.

"I placed the call and they were here five minutes later. I was pleased with the way they handled the whole thing."