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Toledo Fire & Rescue Orders Evacuations, Shelter-In-Place After Glycidyl Methacrylate Release
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Tank explosion released glycidyl methacrylate, triggering one-mile evacuation and three-mile shelter-in-place. Nearly 1,000 residents evacuated within one mile; others shelter in place due to explosion risk.
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Toledo orders after leak
Toledo Fire & Rescue ordered everyone within a 1-mile radius of 1266 Progress Ave, the MC Tank Terminal, to evacuate at 10:48 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, because of a hazardous materials release.
Toledo Fire & Rescue then ordered everyone within a 3-mile radius to shelter in place at 4:24 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, with the city telling residents to stay indoors, close windows and doors, and turn off ventilation that draws in outside air.
The chemical release involved glycidyl methacrylate, and the city said the release was ongoing as of the afternoon of Oct. 21, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said the tank has the potential to be explosive within 12 hours of the original explosion, which happened around 9:30 p.m.
The city said first responders and hazmat teams could not approach the tank until 9:30 a.m., after the chemical release was reported to be ongoing.
Cause, injuries, and monitoring
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the release happened due to an "error that occurred when the material was being transferred," and MC Tank Transport said the chemical released was glycidyl methacrylate.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said one first responder went to the hospital after sustaining the only known injuries, and the Akron Beacon Journal reported it was a Lucas County sheriff’s deputy who drove himself to a hospital.
The city told residents that overexposure symptoms include headache, dizziness, tiredness, nausea and vomiting, and it directed people to call 911 or go to the emergency room for serious symptoms such as difficulty breathing, nausea and vomiting, dizziness or confusion.
The city said the safest course was to let the reaction complete, and the EPA update stated, "The tank has been compromised and the chemical within the tank is completing a reaction."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was monitoring the air and providing direct support to incident command, while the city said it was overseeing air monitoring at several locations around the perimeter of the evacuation zone.
What residents were told
Toledo officials told residents within the 1-mile evacuation zone to evacuate to Shoreland Elementary School and to the Meijer parking lot, where Red Cross and TARTA buses were stationed to provide shelter as needed.
“‘There is no question that we're all kind of smelling and sensing something in the air.”
Toledo officials told residents in the 3-mile shelter-in-place zone to stay indoors, close windows and doors, and keep pets indoors, and the city said the orders were still active as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said residents should act out of an abundance of caution, and he warned that there was "still concern that the tank is emitting this chemical" and that it could be explosive within 12 hours.
Toledo Lucas-County Health Department Commissioner Karim Baroudi said the chemical is toxic and a carcinogen in long-term exposure, but he downplayed immediate risks by saying, "It's mostly an irritant at this point."
The city told residents that smelling an unusual odor does not necessarily mean toxic levels of exposure, and it said, "There is no question that we're all kind of smelling and sensing something in the air."