Hazmat incident in Broken Hill
Published: 16th September 2008
Firefighters from Broken Hill and Broken Hill South were called to a chemical spill in a public school at Broken Hill this morning. Fire crews arrived to discover the teacher and students had evacuated from one classroom and a strong smell present. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used detectors to determine what the smell was and its location. The detectors showed that the air quality was good but not the location of the smell. After checking under the classroom and the roof space the smell was narrowed to one area of the room. Firefighters systematically removed items from that area to investigate. One hundred and eighty students were relocated to another area of the school as a safety precaution while investigations continued. Firefighters discovered the source of the odour, putrescent organic matter that was inside a student's bag. After ventilating the classroom fire crews returned all the contents and school classes resumed.