Acid spill forces hundreds from Denver hospital, school

In Denver, Colorado there was an acid spill in the Kunsberg School, which ironically is a school that students attend who have breathing problems and cannot attend a regular public school. The school and the affliated hospital that specializes in respiratory problems also, had to evacuate arounbd 500 people due to the spill. The spill happened in the school's pool where a mainenance worker spilled 2,15 gallons of hydocholic acid which combined with the bleach from the pool creating dangerous fumes. The fumes spread throughout the campus quickly and the police department believe the qucikness of the fumes being spread was a result of ventilation system and underground tunnels. Fortunately,out of all the 35 injuries none of them were considered life threatening and the mainetence workers were the ones with the most serious injuries.

The reason this story caught my eye when I first started to read it. I think it is really ironic that a spill of HCL acid mixing with bleach and creating dangerous fumes happened at hosiptal and school specializing in people with respiratory problems. Also, it makes me wonder how 2,15 gallons of HCL acid are spilled over into a pool. These 15 gallon containers are not like a can of paint that can be carried around effortless. It makes me wonder what caused this spill to occur? http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/09/hospital.hazmat/index.html

I can see why this particular story caught your eye. I agree with you, how do not one but TWO 15 gallon buckets of Hydrochloric Acid spill into a pool area?! It definitely does make me wonder, since like you stated from the article that both the school and hospital specialize with those who have breathing problems. Then again, what would be the motive for someone to try and harm these children with problems? These stories usually always come back to our society problems. I read another classmates article on how a random person went into a church and started shooting and killed the pastor. What is the point of that?! It is really sad to think that people are so unhappy with their lives that they have to torture and harm other peoples’ lives. I’m glad to hear that none of the injuries were life threatening. Hopefully they do some investigating and figure out it really was an accident or not!

I think this is a horrible story. Like you, I want to know what these people were doing that caused them to spill not one, but two 15 gallon barrels of acid. Now fifteen gallons is not a small container, a heavy milk jug is a gallon, and I would not want to be tight rope walking next to a pool with fifteen in my hands. I would like to find out what these people were doing, or what their excuse was as to how this happened. It may have been an accident, but I would not be surprised if we found out they were doing something improperly which lead to the accident. What is really sad is that it occurred in a school with kids that already have breathing issues among other things. Hopefully this incident will lead people that handle dangerous chemicals like this to take more precaution when handling these types of materials. I see why you chose this article, it is not really an issue, but it spawns many questions, and makes you think about how laid back rules are on people who have serious jobs.

Wow, and I thought the shooter going into a church killing a pastor was really sad, but this story is ridiculous. That is ironic that 215 GALLONS of such a dangerous combination of chemicals was spilled, into an area where children with special breathing problems have to attend. That is really suspicious and so sad because those children could have really been hurt if they hadn’t been evacuated. Not only the children with special breathing issues, but anyone in general could have been harmed. How people think of such awful things to do to other people like its nothing just amazes me. Do people not have a conscious anymore?