A chemical spill that kept students of Hillcrest middle school inside during recess Thursday morning has been cleaned up, according to Coquitlam Fire and Rescue
Deputy Chief Rod Gill told The Tri-City News that a container of muriatic acid, an industrial solution, tipped over in the back of a truck traveling along Como Lake Avenue shortly after 9 a.m. The driver pulled into the parking lot at the school, where he was able to right the container, but some of the chemical had already spilled out of the truck.
"It is all cleaned up now," Gill said. "We just wanted to take some extra precautions. We kept [the students] inside for recess. By lunch, they were allowed out again."
Muriatic acid has a variety of commercial and home uses, including gelatin production, leather processing, building construction and to dissolve rock in oil production. When it is diluted, it can also be used for household cleaning and is a food additive.
Gill said the chemical spilled this morning was likely diluted and shouldn't pose any health impacts to people who were passing by.
One person who drove through the area after the spill occurred said she saw smoke swirling around the left-turn lane on Como Lake ahead of the school.
"At first I thought it was steam coming out of a sewer manhole," she said in an email to The Tri-City News. "It wasn't until I drove directly next to it that I realized it wasn't."
