Store by store firefighters and security guards wearing protective masks rushed shoppers and store workers out of Guelph’s Stone Road Mall Saturday night.
The building's air conditioning unit had sprung a major leak, 700 litres of a chemical substance covered the Toys'R'us floor.
The ethylene glycol leak happened before 7 p-m and the liquid blanketed the 7,000 square foot store floor an inch-deep. Ethylene glycol is a coolant in the heating system.
Kayla Huck works in the mall and says, “I was waiting for a client around seven and noticed everyone running towards our salon telling everyone to get out of the mall”
Police, Fire, EMS and Guelph’s environmental protection officer were all on scene.
Four people were looked at by paramedics and two were taken to hospital as a precaution after breathing in the chemical for too long.
Two city busses were brought in as a staging area for employees.
According to officials the leak was contained to just the one store. Mall manager Tony Stapley says one of the pipes gave way and burst, after many years of use.
The head of the University of Guelph’s Centre of Toxicology Keith Soloman says ethylene glycol can be hazardous if consumed.
"You’d either have to touch the surface that's been contaminated and lick your fingers... or your arm or you hand... or you'd have to get down on the floor and suck the stuff up.”
Mall management decided not to close the mall initially because they felt the liquid posed little risk to shoppers or workers.
“Our guys were talking to the fire department thinking we didn't really need to evacuate but if the fire department says that's what we need to do, we do it” says Stapley.
A specialized cleaning crew was brought on scene. Shortly after the leak occured representatives at Stone Road mall tweeted that the leak posed no danger.
As precaution two people were taken to hospital last night after inhaling the smell all day. Soloman says a human could never inhale enough ethylene glycol to do any actual harm.
