By Ana Campos – email
TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) - An explosive combination resulted in the evacuation of at least twenty employees at the Gerome Maturating facility, located on 36th Street near Palo Verde.
One worker risked his own safety and tried putting out the fire, says Gerome's supervisor, Julio Valdez.
"He was trying to extinguish the flames with the fire extinguisher, I guess he got too close; he inhaled some of the smoke," Valdez said.
That employee was treated and released.
Sixteen others were evaluated on scene while eight fire fighters also were seen by medical personal., one of whom went to the hospital for further evaluation.
Tucson Fire Captain Brain Delf says the hazmat situation could have been much worse, because the metals inside the drum were toxic and highly explosive.
"Powder aluminum, powder magnesium those are a couple of things you would find in fireworks," Delf said.
The fire was contained inside a fifty-five gallon steel drum.
Fire crews couldn't do much in this case but wait for hours until the fire put its self out.
"With metal fires we can't use water or anything that is going to take humidity even form the air to try to extinguish it or cool the metals or it will explode," Delf said.
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