Concern over storage of cyanide

Press, 21 August 1984, Page 1

Concern over storage of cyanide

West. Coast firemen are concerned about the dangers posed by the careless storage of cyanide. The problem was highlighted on Sunday when volunteer firemen from Westport fought a blaze which gutted a house at Big Totara River. Several hours after putting out the fire the men were told that 2kg of rock cyanide, which gives off a poisonous gas when mixed with water, was stored in the house. Westport’s chief fire officer, Mr Pat O’Dea, said that the house was owned by a man who had given up opossum trapping some time ago but had neglected to dispose of the cyanide. The granulated rock cyanide was stored in a plastic container behind a not water cylinder. Four tubes of cyanide paste were also stored in the house, although they were kept in an acceptable metal container, said Mr O’Dea. Early reports suggested that the rock cyanide had given off clouds of lethal gas during the fire, although some doubts have now been raised. Mr O’Dea said last evening that the plastic container appeared to have melted over the rock cyanide, keeping it from contact with water. However, the house was such an inferno by the time his men arrived that some gas could have been given off without their knowing, he said. Mr O’Dea was concerned that his men only learnt about the cyanide several hours after the fire, when the owner told the police. “A lot of people on the Coast use cyanide, and I

would not like any brigades to go into that sort of situation unwarned. They take enough risks as it is,” said Mr O’Dea. He said that there was “a hell of a lot” of cyanide stored on the West Coast and because its use was difficult to police it might be “too big a problem to get to grips with.” “It is hoped that all this publicity will make people take a more responsible attitude,” said Mr O’Dea. On the advice of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Christchurch, firemen wearing chemical protection suits returned to the house on Sunday afternoon to remove the remaining cyanide.