A popular restaurant on Park City Mountain Resort was evacuated Friday morning so a hazmat team could take care of a dangerous substance.
Around 10:15 am on Friday, Park City Fire Department received a phone call that chlorine gas had accidently been created at the Summit House cafeteria located at the top of Bonanza Express. Which caused an evacuation of the building. Park City Battalion Chief Steve Zwirn explains how that happened.
“The cleaning crew was working at the Summit House on Park City Mountain Resort cleaning the bathrooms.” Battalion Chief Zwirn said, “They mixed bleach, and ammonia into a spray bottle, a spritzer bottle. When you mix bleach and ammonia you create Chlorine Gas. When they started to spritz the bottle or spray the mixture out, they were basically breathing a cloud of Chlorine Gas. Two people, to my knowledge, were in the room when they did that. Both of which were transported by the ski patrol to a local clinic.”
Zwirn says that both of those people exposed to the chlorine gas are okay. Zwirn says that a hazmat team went up the mountain on a side by side to make sure that the chlorine gasses had been cleared out of the building and that the spray bottle was disposed of properly. Zwirn says that they get a call about the creation of chlorine gas on occasion, which can be extremely deadly.
“It happens typically with residents.” Zwirn explained, “We haven’t seen one in a while, but someone will be cleaning in their bathtub and the bleach isn’t working so good so they’ll try the ammonia. Unwittingly they mix the two and create Chlorine Gas. It’s one of those things that you warn people not to do but it does happen occasionally.”
That’s Park City Fire District Batallion Chief Steve Zwirn
