A hydrogen alarm alerting workers to a rising level of chemical byproducts prompted the evacuation of Ethicon in Cornelia shortly before noon Monday.
“When we arrived on scene, they already had the plant evacuated and everyone was going to their stations outside,” said Cornelia Fire Marshal Hazle. “We met with emergency response team members and engineers and found that there was a hydrogen alarm that was active in the monomer room, which is where the processes take place to make the polymer that they use for one of the certain type of sutures that is used in medical processes.”
No injuries were reported, and there was no danger to the public, Hazle said.
“Fire personnel from Cornelia and Demorest, including two of which were HazMat technicians, put on full protective gear, including an SCBA [for breathing] and they entered the structure to check the levels,” Hazle said. “They had told us that they went ahead and had done what was necessary to stop the process that produces the hydrogen before we arrived. When [firefighters] entered, the levels had already started dropping in that area from when the alarm first went off.”
Firefighters remained on scene for a couple of hours with plant personnel, who worked to ensure the levels were not going to rise again.
“We kept the plant evacuated the whole time just out of an abundance of caution,” Hazle said. “The only area that we were ever concerned about or working in was just that one area of the plant. At no time did levels reach where there was a danger to the public or even the people that had been evacuated to the outside of the plant.”
After thoroughly ventilating the building using exhaust fans and by opening exterior doors, within 30 to 45 minutes the levels returned to zero, Hazle said.
“We turned the plant back over to Ethicon around 2 o’clock,” Hazle said. “The all clear was given and everyone was allowed to re-enter the plant. Maintenance and engineers and ERT personnel, at that time, were still continuing to look and find if there was a leak or what caused the hydrogen byproduct to be able to escape. They were not going to restart any processing of chemicals in that area until they knew what caused the alarm to go off.”
Ethicon Inc. is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
Personnel from Demorest Fire Department and Habersham County Emergency Services also assisted with Monday’s incident.
Hydrogen is a byproduct only at the plant
Hazle said Ethicon does not use hydrogen in its processes.
“They do not have hydrogen at the plant,” Hazle said. “It’s just a byproduct of the chemical process that’s used in that particular part of the plant.”
Still, Hazle realizes that responders, industries and the public are extra sensitive to any type chemical leak since a nitrogen leak at Foundation Food Group in Gainesville claimed the lives of five men and one woman in January.
“That’s always in the back of our head, and I also know that that’s been on the minds of everyone on the safety team and management at Ethicon,” Hazle said. “We’ve actually been out to the plant and they’ve had conversations with us since that [Foundation] incident, where they’ve taken extra steps … that they’re doing everything they can to have as many safety measures as possible in place to prevent an incident like that happening at Ethicon.”
Hazle credits the teamwork between Ethicon’s leaders and Cornelia responders with ensuring emergency responses are efficient when needed. He added the plant’s emergency response team handles some incidents without requiring fire department assistance.
“Their management and safety team and their emergency response team have always been really good to keep us informed and to work with us at Cornelia and make sure that we’re all on the same page and everything that can be done to make the plant as safe as possible has taken place,” Hazle said.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2021/3/988013/hydrogen-alarm-prompts-evacuation-of-ethicon-plant-in-cornelia