SACRAMENTO, CA - A Freon leak inside a Sacramento Safeway on 19th and R streets caused an evacuation of the store Friday around 7:45 p.m.

Safeway employees in the deli section reported smelling something strange and seeing a foggy air near the refrigerator, Sacramento City Fire Capt. Robin Davis said.

PHOTOS: Explosion heard at Sacramento Safeway

A Hazmat team tested 19 people who reported smelling the Freon and released them when no sickness was detected.

"They were just feeling ill like diziness or nausia. Each of them had different complaints," Davis said. "All of them were checked out by our medical units on scene and released."  

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. -- Dozens of Comcast employees were evacuated Saturday evening after fire officials said the air conditioning system may have leaked Freon.
Cunningham Fire Chief Jerry Rhodes said crews were called to the Comcast facility at 8000 East Iliff Avenue at about 5:17 p.m. He said an employee noticed a “vapor,” triggering the company to activate emergency alarms and evacuate the building.
HAZMAT crews from South Metro Fire Rescue assisted with the incident. Inside the building, they found the possible source of the problem, a leak in a Freon line. The leak was stopped and crews were working to ventilate the building before allowing employees back inside, Rhodes said.

Firefighters have warned residents not to use sharp objects to defrost freezers after being called to a "chemical incident" last night.

The fire brigade was called to a home in Rackham Mews, near the Streatham end of Mitcham Lane, at about 9.30pm yesterday, whose occupant became alarmed when he punctured a hole in his freezer.

Refridgerators contain a liquid chemical called Freon, which can escape as gas if there is a puncture and settle in the lungs, causing health problems, if inhaled.

A spokesman for Tooting fire station said: "We get called out to these kinds of incidents, which are reported as chemical incidents, more often than you would think.

"A leak to a fridge can be dangerous and residents are right to call us if they are concerned.

"But we would urge anyone defrosting their freezer not to use a sharp knife to scrape off the ice. Just turn it off and wait a couple of hours and that should be enough."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A cloud of chemical smoke on Vanderbilt University's campus Thursday morning was caused by a Freon leak, according to the Metro Fire Department.

There was a report of a fire on a high-rise laboratory building on campus at about 6:45 a.m. Firefighters didn't find a blaze, but did find smoke coming from an eighth-floor broom closet.
The smoke was described as acidic in nature. There were no reports of injuries.

URBANA — A blown Freon line on an air conditioner sent employees from the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District and Carle information technology outside their building Tuesday afternoon.

About 1:30 p.m., Urbana firefighters were sent to 1101 E. University Ave. after a report of smoke in a mechanical room.

Fire Chief Mike Dilley said firefighters donned air packs and determined that freon escaping from a line had gotten into the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system and was being pushed through the entire building.

CHARLESTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- State Police in Embreeville are investigating after a hazmat situation turned fatal on Saturday.
It happened at an unoccupied office/warehouse facility and communications tower in the 1000 block of Valley Hill Road in Charlestown Township.
Police said the victim and three co-workers were contracted to remove mechanical equipment and scrap metal from the building, and had been working at the building for the past week.
They said when the group arrived to work on Saturday, two people were exposed to fumes believed to have come from a mechanical room housing air conditioning cooling units.
Police said the victim collapsed, and the other worker was able to call for help. The three workers tried rescuing the victim, but were overcome by the fumes.
All four were transported to Paoli Hospital for treatment, and the victim was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Several emergency crews arrived on scene to secure the building and area surrounding it. It was determined to be safe after being ventilated.
Police said a preliminary investigation showed the victim's company was in the early stages of removing the cooling units. An inspection of the units showed they were still pressurized and several of the valves were opened, allowing freon gases to escape.

A noxious white vapour cloud set off alarm bells at a North Shore grocery store this past weekend.

Crews from West Vancouver Fire and Rescue were called to the 1600 block of Marine Drive shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (Mar. 27) after toxic fumes triggered the store's automatic detection system.

After arriving at the scene, fire crews evacuated the building and gathered the store's night crew inside a fire engine.

Investigators determined the white cloud filling the store was a chemical known as Forane R507 — commonly used in refrigeration compressors.

In large doses the chemical, which was spraying from a disconnected supply hose, can compromise heart function and cause central nervous system disorders.

An Amtrak Coast Starlight train was forced to stop at a Camarillo Metrolink station Saturday afternoon and evacuate passengers because of a Freon leak in one of its cars.

The Coast Starlight was en route from Los Angeles to Sacramento with 134 passengers, an Amtrak spokeswoman said.

Everyone evacuated about 2 p.m. was in good condition and safe, the Ventura County Fire Department reported.

A hazardous materials team was sent to the site. The leak originated from a chiller used to keep food, beverages and other things cold, the Amtrak spokeswoman said.

The downtown YMCA-YWCA on Argyle Street has reopened after a freon gas leak evacuated about 200 people from the building Wednesday, sending swimmers onto the street in their bathing suits.

The leak was detected in a mechanical room on the third floor of the building where sub-contractors were working to remove asbestos at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The building reopened just after 1 p.m.

Seven workers were assessed at the scene, and three were sent to hospital to be treated for injuries.

A report of smoke and a chemical odor at Piazza's Fine Foods in Palo Alto on Friday morning prompted an evacuation of the market and kept it closed for much of the day.
The fire department responded to the store on the 3900 block of Middlefield Road at about 6:20 a.m. and determined the smoke was caused by a refrigerant leak in the mechanical room at the back of the building. A refrigerator technician quickly stopped the leak, according to the fire department.
Dennis McClellan, the store director, said he was the first person to see the smoke and that a co-worker alerted the fire department.
"I didn't know what it was," McClellan said. "We knew it was some kind of chemical because we could kind of breathe it."
McClellan described the smoke as a "big puff of Freon."
The store was closed at the time, and the employees were evacuated as a precaution, he said. No one was injured.

SAN DIEGO -- Hazmat crews are responding to a freon leak reported at a Food 4 Less in Mission Valley.
The leak was reported about 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Food 4 Less supermarket in the 7700 block of Hazard Center Drive.
The store was fully evacuated by 4:45 p.m. and so far there is no word on when the store will be reopened. About 20 people were in the store at the time of the leak. Two people were evaluated at the scene but were not taken to the hospital.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Shoppers turning up at Montgomery's Eastdale Mall on Father's Day were turned away by police after a refrigerant leak and the death of a worker were reported.

Officers had blocked off every entrance of the mall, while the Montgomery Fire Department's HAZMAT team tried to find the source of an R-22 refrigerant leak near the mall's ice skating rink.

Lt. Mark Drinkard, a spokesman for the Montgomery Police Department, says the fire department received a call Sunday morning about the leak, and police received a call reporting a man was dead.

Drinkard says 22-year-old Nicholas Burdette of Millbrook apparently was performing janitorial services when he died.

Drinkard says Burdette's cause of death won't not be known until an autopsy is performed.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Emergency officials responded to a freon leak at a deli at the foot of Clove Road and Howard Avenue in Sunnyside today.
HazMat units were summoned to Mignosi's Supermarket, at 1490 Clove Rd., for the incident, which occurred in a refrigeration unit, according to radio transmissions.
The problem stemmed from defectiveness with the system's compressor, according to an FDNY spokesman.
Two workers were overcome by the fumes and taken to Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton. Two other workers refused treatment on the scene.
Officials announced the situation under control at 1:47 p.m.
Numerous emergency vehicles responded, blocking one lane of Clove Road.
The Wagner College graduation ceremony up Howard Avenue while the response was at its height. The combination of emergency vehicles and graduation traffic caused heavy delays in the area. Traffic control agents were needed to assist.