SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A quick response by dozens of San Antonio fire units to an industrial complex on Monday kept a chemical fire near the city’s international airport from becoming an industrial catastrophe. The fire at a factory that refurbishes aircraft parts resulted in the spill of 1,000 gallons of hazardous chemicals, causing the evacuation of several businesses in the area.
Breitbart Texas observed the actions of multiple fire crews that responded from across Alamo City to the 3600 block of Highpoint Street near the San Antonio International Airport on Monday morning. According to a spokesperson for the San Antonio Fire Department, nearly 100 employees were evacuated from the factory and sustained no injuries.
Breitbart Texas spoke to several employees who worked at Fresh Texas, a neighboring food processing facility, who reported being forced to evacuate their building. That person indicated that one employee was treated for an unidentified medical emergency during the evacuation but was not seriously injured.
According to the San Antonio Fire Department’s official spokesperson, firefighters responding to the blaze discovered 500 gallons of sodium hydroxide and 500 gallons of hydrochloric acid at the facility. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sodium hydroxide is a widely used chemical whose toxicity has been well known for some time. It is corrosive and irritating to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. It has been classified in Toxicity Category I (indicating the highest degree of toxicity) due to its acute eye and skin irritation effects.
Hydrochloric acid also poses a severe risk to those exposed to the chemical, according to the EPA. Hydrochloric acid is corrosive to the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes, with inhalation exposure causing eye, nose, and respiratory tract irritation and inflammation, as well as pulmonary edema in humans. Acute oral exposure may cause corrosion of the mucous membranes, esophagus, and stomach, and dermal contact may produce severe burns, ulceration, and scarring in humans.
Luckily for workers at the affected factories and hundreds of nearby residents, the chemicals were heavily diluted by the fire department, lessening the need to expand the size of the evacuation zone. The fire was extinguished after several hours of effort by the dozens of responding fire crews.
The cause of Monday’s fire has not been determined and according to the SAFD spokesperson, firefighters remained on scene until cleanup efforts organized by the aircraft refurbishing factory commenced.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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