"Within minutes the whole street was filled with fire trucks": Toxic gas leaked in a residential building in Ramat HaSharon
A leak of methyl bromide, a toxic gas used for agricultural pest control, led on Friday to the mobilization of fire, police, and Magen David Adom forces to the residential building. The container was located on the minus 2 floor of the building: "Apparently, a child or a teenager moved the container or damaged it, and that is what caused the leak."
Panic in Ramat HaSharon: On Friday afternoon, minutes after returning with her daughter from kindergarten, Hadar (a pseudonym) entered the elevator of her building — and felt that something was wrong.
"There was a foul smell of a chemical substance," she tells mako Health. "I thought it would pass, but when we entered the house, my daughter suddenly started screaming that her eyes were burning. She was coughing and crying. After a few moments, I also felt a burning sensation in my eyes, I started coughing and itching. I immediately called my husband and we fled the apartment."
Only when they got out did the family members realize they were not the only ones. "There were a lot of neighbors there. People were washing their eyes and faces, drinking water, children were crying. No one understood what was happening," says Hadar. "Within minutes, the whole street was filled with fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. There were about ten emergency vehicles and dozens of rescue personnel. They closed the street from both directions, I understood that some of the neighbors had barricaded themselves in their homes. It was very scary."
Later it turned out that the source of the incident was a leak of a toxic gas used for pest control and disinfection in agriculture. Guy Telem, spokesperson for the Herzliya fire station and head of the public relations and information department, said that the fire crews carried out scans and located the source of the leak.
"We identified that it was methyl bromide, a very toxic gas."
According to him, the source of the leak was a container found on the minus 2 floor of the building. "Apparently, a child or a teenager moved the container or damaged it, which caused the leak." The regional hazardous materials unit sealed it to stop the leak and take control of the incident. Afterwards, a decontamination procedure was carried out for the teams exposed to the substance, which included washing the equipment and protective suits, and the container was sealed and transferred for further handling. Fortunately, no one required medical treatment.
