State Route 550 was closed for part of yesterday afternoon because of a chemical spill at Helena Chemical Company in Warriors Mark Township.
According to Bob Miller, the chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee of Huntingdon County he told The Daily Herald, “They were loading a fertilizer into an egg truck when the container on the truck burst. The chemical ran across the street and into the two drainage ditches along Route 550.”
Miller was pleased with the response.
“By the time I arrived on the scene, the people at Helena had things pretty well under control,” said Miller. “They started the clean-up process, built a damn on their property to stop the spill and probably saved about 200 gallons from going into the ditches. They got the speedy dry out and plan to dispose of the fertilizer on a field.
“The Warriors Mark-Franklin Volunteer Fire Company did what they were supposed to do,” Miller added. “They blocked the road because of the unknown factor. When there is a spill, the unknown is the first fear. Thankfully it was only about a 30 percent concentration of Hydrogen Ammonia that was in the fertilizer. If it had been a 60 percent concentration, there could have been a vapor cloud.”
The Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Administration was notified of the spill.
Helena Chemical has Pennsylvania locations in Shrewsbury, Mifflinville, Biglerville and Warriors Mark. The company deals with crop protection products, agriculture chemicals, seed, fertilizer and related products.
