Chemical Incident At StanChem

Thursday morning, shortly after 8 a.m., the Town of Berlin Fire Departments were dispatched to a chemical emergency at Stanchem, Berlin Street, East Berlin. 

On arrival company safety staff reported that a chemical reaction had occurred involving one of their polymer products. The reaction occurred in a 275 gallon tote designed to hold the product.

Personnel from the fire department made entry and found the tote to be bulging and approximately 200 gallons of product had leaked from the tote onto the floor. 

The entire building was evacuated as a safety precaution and DEP was requested to the scene. Air sampling was conducted of both the interior and the exterior of the building and based on that sampling it was determined that there was no health or safety hazard to the public. 

An environmental contractor was contracted by Stanchem to conduct the cleanup of the spill and DEP remained on scene to continue their investigation and assist in the cleanup.

No injuries to Stanchem employees or fire personnel was reported.