WORKERS HAD to be evacuated from a factory in Co Clare early yesterday after 250 litres of sulphuric acid were accidentally spilled inside the plant.
The alarm was raised at about 6.30am when staff reported the spill in a storage area at the rear of an Essilor Ireland plant on the outskirts of Ennis.
The company, known as Organic Lens Manufacturing, produces ophthalmic corrective lenses and is located in the Gort Road industrial estate where it employs more than 300 workers.
About 50 staff were working at the time and they were quickly evacuated to emergency meeting points outside the plant where management carried out a roll call to ensure that everyone was accounted for. The company’s emergency response team was deployed pending arrival of the emergency services.
Within minutes, gardaí and four units of the fire brigade from Ennis arrived at the scene, while medical emergency services were also alerted. No medical assistance was required and ambulances were stood down. No one was injured or affected by the fumes.
The company notified the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the incident and an inspector from the authority arrived at the scene at about 10.30am where she met fire officers and received a briefing about the spillage.
It is understood that two drums containing sulphuric acid fell from a pallet while they were being moved within the plant. One of the 250-litre drums was full and burst open after hitting the ground.
Assistant chief fire officer for Co Clare Denis O’Connell said: “On arrival at the site, the factory had been evacuated and the Essilor emergency response team had already been deployed. It was a relatively small spillage but due to the nature of the substance, sulphuric acid, all chemical procedures were put in place and all firefighters wore full chemical suits before entering the building.
“There was a risk area established in the vicinity of the spill and so the only people allowed inside that area were emergency services.”
The EPA said: “The incident involved a spill of 98 per cent sulphuric acid within a building at the facility.
“An EPA inspector has visited the site to assess the situation and has liaised with the environmental manager on-site, and the fire service. The EPA inspector has verified that the spillage was contained within a building at the facility.
“The EPA considers that the spillage has been contained with no resulting off-site impact of environmental significance,” the agency added.