Chemical leak shuts down Memorial City Mall

Thursday, December 21, 2006

(12/21/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- At the height of holiday shopping, a chemical leak forced the evacuation of part of a major mall Thursday. Customers tell us they had to get out so fast that not only shopping bags, but purses were also left behind.

Firefighters were called to Memorial City Mall around 7pm Thursday and shortly after that, half the mall was shut down.

The area where the leak happened was at mall's ice rink. That led to half of the mall being evacuated.

The problem originated around 6pm in a maintenance room near the rink when an oil leak started and some ammonia fumes escaped into the mall. That liquid ammonia is used to make the rink's ice. The alarm was sounded in the mall as workers and shoppers were evacuated.

"Once our Haz-Mat unit got on location, they started doing air samples of the mall. They were working kinda out and back towards the mechanical room," said District Chief Harvey Yaw of the Houston Fire Department. "The concentrations of ammonia in the mall were minor."

"We're thankful that our emergency response procedures enabled a quick and effective evacuation of mall property while authorities confirmed the situation had been contained," said Memorial City Mall spokesperson Sherry Burton-Fowler.

The mall reopened an hour after the evacuation. There were no reported injuries, but the workers near the leak were checked out by fire department medics.

This was the second ice skating related chemcial leak Thursday.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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