Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
A fire was reported shortly after 5 p.m. at the former Harvey’s Marathon gas station at Oakton Street and Northwest Highway in Park Ridge on Wednesday afternoon. Heavy black smoke covered the immediate area while firefighters from several communities worked to get the fire under control.
A Niles firefighter and a Schiller Park firefighter suffered minor burns while fighting the fire and were treated and released from Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.
The building was loaded with approximately 90,000 pounds of calcium peroxide, a hazardous material that can be used as a decontaminate in soil. The material was brought to the building the previous day. The station has been vacant for several years.
#1 by Chuck on July 19, 2019 - 9:53 PM
If this was a hazmat, (and now that the City of Park Ridge is looking at lots of potential bills for the cleanup and equipment replacement, etc.,) – can somebody explain the pictures where proper decontamination procedures were not followed? The guy standing in front of an open port on the Des Plaines Tower, or the three guys standing beneath the underbasket nozzle spraying them? If they found this stuff early on, nobody apparently bothered to look that this material degrades in the presence of water. Not to mention the fact they say the runoff should be contained. Wonder if the neighborhood knows they were being exposed as well as the first responders