About 40 people were evacuated from hotels near Auckland Airport last night after fumes from a pesticide, which has historically been used in chemical warfare, wafted through their windows from a neighbouring farm.

International guests at Kiwi International Hotel and the Airport Skyway Lodge on Kirkbride Rd, Mangere, started getting itchy eyes due to strong fumes in the air, Fire Service incident controller Grant Thompson said.

One neighbour told NZPA the sensation was similar to when you cut onions.

The Fire Service was called around 10pm and it was established the fumes were caused by a neighbouring strawberry farmer who had poured the soil fumigant chloropicrin on his paddock.

Mr Thompson said the chemical was treated with respect because it has been used in chemical warfare.

An ammonia spill in a Wellington Hospital laboratory sparked a small evacuation this morning.

Under 10 litres of the hazardous substance was spilt on level 6 of the Clinical Services Block at about 10am this morning, fire service spokesman Mike Wanoa said.

A hospital spokeswoman said workers on the level were evacuated for about 45 minutes as the fire service and hospital staff cleared the spill.

The chemical explosion of a quarantined car on Wellington's wharf sent a fireball into the air and jolted people from their sleep.

"It was just a massive boom and then it shuddered the house," Roseneath resident Scott Garvie said of yesterday's 4.50am explosion.

He initially thought it was an earthquake, but looked out his Palliser Rd window and saw plumes of black smoke coming from a burning shipping container on the waterfront.

Greg White was on the 10th floor of Telecom House in Jervois Quay when the explosion "rocked" the building.

"I looked out the window and there was a huge fireball and flames shooting up. It was pitch black. We couldn't actually see what it was. Initially we thought a boat had hit it."

The car, which was being fumigated with the toxic chemical methyl bromide, was a charred shell after the explosion. Nobody was injured.

Police have charged a man with allowing drugs to be manufactured after a fatal explosion at a suspected P-lab south of Auckland.

Clint Gordon Curly, 25, died in a blast at the property on Mckinney Rd in Glenbrook just before 6pm on Thursday.

Police have revealed Mr Curly was manufacturing an "illicit drug" when a chemical process went wrong and caused the explosion.

Forensic tests will determine which drug Mr Curly was manufacturing, police said.

A Ngaruawahia ambulance officer called local fire fighters to their station about 1.15am this morning after finding a leaking drum on a trailer parked outside the station.

Fearing the worst, Fire fighters got kitted out in chemical suits only to find the two dozen 200 litre drums contained a liquid that turned out to be paint. Council workers were called to help with the clean up.

Firefighters today contained a chemical spill in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere which had the potential to kill animal and marine life.

Fire Service Hastings Senior Station Officer Bruno Saathof told NZPA a Cropliner spraying unit with a full tank of insecticide was being towed by a tractor between two orchards when the towbar broke about 11am.

The insecticide was extremely toxic to animal and marine life and 150 litres of the 2000 litre load spilled.

A sprinkler system has saved a Christchurch bedding factory from severe damage after a chemical explosion overnight.

Firefighters were called to Comfort Technologies in Treffers Rd, Wigram, about 10.40pm yesterday when the sprinkler system went off following a minor explosion.

When they got there they found the sprinklers had put the fire out, said Fire Service southern communications acting shift manager Daryl Ball.

The majority of damage was caused by flooding from the sprinklers, but if they were not there, the damage would have been far more extensive, he said.

Part of central Dunedin was cordoned off tonight as firefighters worked to clear a chemical spill at Speight's Brewery.

Acting Fire Station officer Martin Jansen said about 20 firefighters were still at the scene tonight tackling the spillage of 300 litres of nitrobrite, a highly corrosive cleaning chemical, which was reacting with the container it was stored in.

The firefighters were attempting to dilute the substance so they could shift it to another container and dispose of it.

A dangerous chemical found stored in the inner-city office of Public Health South prompted a full-scale hazardous material operation at the Invercargill Fire Service yesterday.

The incident has raised questions about how a canister of calcium cyanide, labelled "Poison Cyanogas", could sit undetected in the Spey St offices of Public Health South for 18 months.

Although one of Public Health South's roles was to offer advice on hazardous substances, the canister was simply placed in storage on the premises.

Public Health South Dunedin-based general manager Pip Stewart said the canister was dropped into the Invercargill office some time in 2009 and put into a storeroom.

It was discovered last year during an audit but staff put it back into the storeroom while they decided what to do with it.

"I don't think we would normally store anything like that," Ms Stewart said.

Thick black smoke billowed into the air at a Mount Maunganui chemical plant on Sunday night after metal filters in an open yard caught fire.
Fire fighters arrived at Hexion Specialty Chemicals Limited on Totara Street at about 7.30pm to battle the blaze.
It took them close to an hour to completely extinguish the fire.


Outiside Hexion Specialty Chemicals Limited on Monday morning.

Tauranga senior station officer, Mark Keller, says the metal filters were full of a flammable resin.
He says the build up of resin is formed when the filters are used to process pine tree extract into turpentine.
“The fire started in the metal filters and at this stage we think it was caused by chemical spontaneous combustion.”
The fire spread to other metal components in the yard, including a shipping container.

Fire crews have contained a chemical spill at a helicopter maintenance company near Auckland.
Two staff at Airwork New Zealand at Ardmore Airport were evacuated and the site was cordoned off on Thursday morning.
About 300 litres of chromic acid was found to have leaked.
The Fire Service says the chemical has now been neutralised and absorbed, and the building has been ventilated.

A reaction at a Mount Maunganui chemical plant led to a section of Totara St being blocked off by police and the building being evacuated while firefighters diluted the chemicals.

A plume of white steam erupted from the hydrogen peroxide container filling the facility at Orica Chemnet about 3.15pm yesterday, due to a valve accidently being left open on the filling line.

Site manager Paul Hastie said the hydrogen peroxide - used for bleaching and disinfecting in industrial processes - then flowed into the catchment pit, which was designed to contain such leaks.

"The leaked hydrogen peroxide reacted with dust and dirt residing in the catchment pit, which reacted to form oxygen and water," he said.

The Greerton fire fighter hazmat unit was called to Kawerau on Monday night to assist in dealing with a hazardous chemical spill at the Norske Skog pulp and paper mill.

Black liquor, a caustic mix of chemicals used in the pulping process, was leaking from a valve.
Shutting the valve took two men wearing fully encapsulated hazard suits about 25 minutes to shut off, says Kawerau station officer Bill Rackham, but shutting off the valve was able to be done until the support crews were in place.

Tauranga’s new $800,000 Hazmat Command Unit is helping to contain a hazardous chemical incident in Edgecumbe.
Fire communications acting shift manager Tony McDonald says the incident involves a Trans Pacific tanker.

He says the tanker sucked in nitric acid into its container and the chemical reaction had created plumes of noxious fumes.

A chemical spill on the main street of Kurow was quickly cleaned up by fire crew and members of the public, police say.

Constable Craig Bennett said insecticide and herbicide spilt from two 10-litre tanks on the corner of Bledisloe St and State Highway 82 yesterday after the tanks fell out of a truck door. The latch was loose and as the driver rounded the corner, the tanks fell out and were partially ruptured when they hit the ground.

"I believe the driver stopped straightaway," Mr Bennett said. "He's turned the corner and obviously heard stuff move ... he's realised the catch of the door didn't take."

Firefighters spent most of the day cleaning up over 600 litres of hydrogen peroxide spilled in Hamilton this morning after workers at a chemicals factory pierced a 1000-litre drum with a forklift.

About 40 firefighters were called to the spill at the Ecolab plant in Te Rapa, in northern Hamilton, just before 10am.

Workers spilled some of the chemical inside the factory, and while trying to clean up took the rest of it outside which also had to be dealt with, Fire Service Waikato assistant area manager Darryl Papesch told NZPA.

Ecolab workers put absorbent material on the chemical, which started reacting with the hydrogen peroxide. They then called the Fire Service, which evacuated the area and neutralised the spill with caustic soda. There were about 20 workers at the site.

There has been a large chemical spill at a laboratory on the outskirts of Hamilton.

Five fire trucks, police and ambulance crews have been at Ecolab just off Vickery Street in the suburb of Bryant Park for about an hour trying to contain the spill.

Fire communications shift manager Steve Smith says a large quantity of hydrogen peroxide has been spilt.

The laboratory has been evacuated while a clean up takes place.

A feared chemical spill in Orewa has turned out to be nothing more harmful than weed spray used by the council.

Orewa's central business district was locked down and people evacuated while fire crews investigated.

Fire Service spokesman Scott Osmond said many were concerned about the unusual smell but it had been confirmed as non-hazardous and people allowed back in the area.

Orewa's central business district has re-opened after being locked down amid fears there may have been a chemical spill.

The Hibiscus Coast town was evacuated as fire crews investigated.

Fire Service Spokesman, Scott Osmond, says they were concerned about the unusual smell that pervaded the centre of Orewa for several hours.

"It has been identified as a smell caused by weed spray used by the council," he told Newstalk ZB, "there's no hazard to anyone's health and the area's now safe for public access and re-opened."

Osmond said it was just the smell that was unpleasant and that there had been no complaints from people irritated by the spray.

Chemical building ablaze in Raglan
TUE, 13 APR 2010 7:40A.M.
A building containing hazardous chemicals is ablaze in the Waikato town of Raglan this morning.
Emergency services including a hazardous materials unit are at the scene and more fire trucks are on the way from Hamilton and Ngaruawahia.
The warehouse contains a fibre glass yacht and a number of chemicals.
No one is injured and the building is not threatening any residential houses.

Marae chemical was pesticide
By JARED MORGAN - The Southland Times Last updated 05:00 03/03/2010
The substance at the centre of a large-scale chemical response at an Invercargill marae has been confirmed as insecticide.
Fire Service Southland assistant area manager Julian Tohiariki said tests conducted by Hill Laboratories in Hamilton had identified the chemical as Dimethoate.
Emergency services swarmed Murihiku Marae in Tramway Rd after a Corrections Department- supervised work crew came into contact with the substance on February 18. A member of the community work crew picked up an aluminium can in a garden shed at the marae, spilling the substance on himself and releasing vapour.
Within minutes he and others began to feel nauseous and some vomited.

Source: ONE NewsDecontaminating from mercury spill
Emergency services turned out to a mercury spill at DairyNZ's headquarters on the outskirts of Hamilton.
The Fire Service says five to 10 millilitres of mercury was spilt at the office and labs shortly after 4pm Friday.
The spill happened when a 100-year-old barometer broke during an office move on Friday afternoon.
DairyNZ says the movers and one of its staff members were exposed.
"Our staff followed all the correct procedures. One who has had the relevant HASNO training put on the appropriate protective gear and began dealing with it," Dairy NZ CEO Tim Mackle says.

Exposed gas suits locked away
Fire service equipment remains unusable and under lock and key pending the identification of the substance at the centre of a large-scale chemical response in Invercargill on Thursday.
Fire Service Southland area manager Brendan Nally said six $8000 "gas suits" – completely sealed and equipped with their own oxygen supply – radios, a chainsaw, clothing and other equipment, had been double bagged and stowed away at the Invercargill City Council's waste management department until the chemical had been officially identified.
"Until we know what it is we don't know how we should clean the gear."
The Fire Service was reliant on Dunedin for backup if there was another chemical-related call, he said.
The equipment was exposed to what he described as a "pungent" vapour at the Murihiku Marae after emergency services swarmed the Tramway Rd site after a Department of Corrections supervised work crew came into contact with the substance about 12.30pm.

Chemical spill forces evacuation of marae
ROBYN EDIE EXPOSED: A community worker is put into an ambulance after being exposed to the fumes of a chemical spill at the Murihiku Marae yesterday.
Five people were taken to hospital and 12 others temporarily isolated after a chemical spill forced the evacuation of dozens of people from an Invercargill marae yesterday.
The Murihiku Marae, in Tramway Rd, was cordoned off by police and fire crews for more than three hours after chemicals spilled on to a community worker who picked up a plastic cannister with a puncture hole.

Source:
Firefighters wore protective suits to tackle a chemical spill in south Auckland on Sunday morning.
Three fire crews, three support vehicles and a hazardous substance unit, went to business premises in Heritage Way, Flat Bush, just after 11am.
They plugged a leak from where 20 litres of sulphuric acid had spilled, according to Paul Radden, northern fire communications shift manager.
Fire crews have now left the scene

Chemical fire erupts, gas main bursts in city
Firefighters wash down one of their colleagues after a gas main burst yesterday.
People were evacuated after a chemical fire broke out in Mount Maunganui - and just minutes later a worker ruptured a gas main and struck a live wire.
The two incidents, which resulted in emergency services racing across town, were part of a hectic two hours of drama in which police chased thieves and a caregiver was assaulted.
The action started at 12.50pm when firefighters and police sped to Genera Ltd in Maru St, Mount Maunganui after reports of a fire in a drum turned out to be sparks and a toxic plume of gas developing after water was poured on aluminium phosphide pellets.
Aluminium phosphide is used for fumigation.
Tauranga Fire Brigade senior station officer Phil Price said a number of businesses in the neighbouring industrial area were evacuated and about 20 people checked over by ambulance officers.