Chemical spill shuts Fundy High
Published Friday November 27th, 2009
Safety: Officials sent school kids home Thursday
ST. GEORGE - Fundy High School will open for classes this morning following an unexpected day off Thursday, District 10 acting superintendent Jenny MacDougall hopes.
Students, teachers and other staff went home before the school day even started after a custodian making normal morning rounds noticed a strange odour at about 8 a.m.
A shelf in the chemistry laboratory closet broke over night, MacDougall said. A bottle containing an unidentified chemical fell on the floor and broke, allowing fumes to permeate the building
A handful of students had already arrived at school, but the custodian called the principal and the St. George fire department.
"They felt it best that there not be any students in the school, or staff," MacDougall said.
MacDougall did not know what spilled from the broken bottle. Neither she nor the firefighters could say if the fumes threatened anybody's health. "The shelf broke and something landed in the floor," she said.
The custodian discovered the smell almost too late to broadcast a notice on the radio. The buses were already running, so the notice could only tell parents to expect their teenagers back home shortly. A total of 633 students plus staff attend classes at Fundy High, MacDougall said.
Teachers and custodians normally report to work on storm days but they could not do that at Fundy High on Thursday because the firefighters recommended that nobody enter the building until the hazardous materials team declared it safe.
"In this case the school was closed. They didn't want anybody to go in," MacDougall said.
Teachers usually have school-related work they can do at home, she said.
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Canadian and US schools need to recorde the contents and location of all toxins that threaten the health of children. Safe handling and emergency information should be posted for each chemical, including cleaning and construction materials. Emergency personnel would have necessary information to respond.
The report of no injuries concerns me. As in my case, the school denied claims of injuries, although over two dozen had to see doctors for treatment. Toxic injuries, which include elevated cancer risks, take years and decades to diagnose.
Nancy Swan
Alabama USA
https://sites.google.com/site/nancyswan/toxic-justice-a-true-story
If you took any time to get FACTS instead of speculating, you would quickly learn that the Saint John Fire Department provides regional Hazardous Materials Response for an area of the province. As such, any expenses incurred by the SJFD, including calling additional firefighters in to work to provide full staffing in the city, for a response outside of the city is reimbursed by the province back to the SJFD.
Therefore, based on FACTUAL information, the cost for the Saint John taxpayer for this response will be the grand total of NOTHING!!!!