A pumping mistake at Visy’s board factory in North Melbourne led to an evacuation of five hundred people last week, closing two schools and emptying nearby homes.
Local media report that a delivery tanker pumped the wrong chemical into a holding tank, setting off a chemical reaction. 2500 litres of sodium hyperchloride, a bleaching product, mixed with aluminium chlorate, causing gas to leak from a tank.Four students from a local secondary school, 12 workers from the Visy, an elderly male resident and two truck drivers were taken to hospital. All were in a stable condition after suffering breathing difficulties.
Police evacuated the area 1.5 kilometres downwind and 400 metres upwind of the factory, using 35 officers to cordon off the area's perimeter while 45 fire fighters dealt with the leak.
The site was deemed safe later that day.
