Toxic chemical mixtures leave unanswered questions for Lafayette Fire Department's Hazmat unit

Lafayette, La (KADN) On Friday afternoon Lafayette fire department wrapped up a hazardous situation at Quala on the 3200 blk of Cameron St. That chemical mixture of materials led to an orange toxic plume spewing from a large container. After two days from the incident firefighters still don’t know what chemicals caused this reaction. 

"For what we understand the workers were mixing the chemicals inside of the plastic tote. In the process of doing that there was a chemical reaction. They started to see orange and brownish colored smoke emitting from it therefore they called us,” said Alton Trahan. 

The Lafayette hazmat team arrived at the chemical cleaning company just after the noon hour on Thursday. Upon arrival, crews saw a 275 gallon plastic tote with about 60 gallons of different liquids inside. Those chemicals, causing a chain reaction leading to an orange plume coming from the container. 

"There were several chemicals that were placed inside the tote to clean it like a mixing solution and that's what contributed to the chemical reaction and unfortunately. We had to let it settle down a little bit before we do any kind of agitation,” said Trahan. 

After spending two days at Quala keeping the reaction controlled, hazmat teams were able to get the liquids inside of a bigger tote. 

"We realized that the chemicals weren't reacting this morning so they were able to transfer it over into a bigger tote that can contain a higher temperature,” Trahan said.