Spilled pool chemicals close Santa Rosa street

Several gallons of pool chlorine that were spilled in the street after falling from a commercial pool truck closed Piner Road in Santa Rosa for almost three hours Monday while hazardous materials crews attended to the mess.

The spill of 2 or 3 gallons occurred just before 10 a.m. in the westbound lane of Piner Road east of Fulton Road, Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Matt Dahl said. Safety concerns and the need to make room for a hazmat team prompted police to shut down both lanes of traffic between Fulton and Pinercrest Drive until about 12:45 p.m.

The hazmat team, in breathing suits to prevent exposure to liquid or vapor chemicals, used materials to soak up and neutralize the substance, identified as sodium hypochlorite. A city street crew then had to wash down and vacuum the area, Dahl said.

“We closed the road because there was product in two lanes of the road and, obviously, we didn’t want people driving through the fumes, and we didn’t want people driving through the product and spreading it,” he said.

Mary Callahan