Potentially Explosive Spill Shuts Down Ortega Hwy.

A 14-mile stretch of Ortega Highway from the Riverside-Orange County border to the San Juan Capistrano city limits may be closed through this morning’s rush hour while a large intra-agency task force cleans up a “potentially highly explosive” spill of chemicals thrown off the highway, probably by “an illegal dumper,” authorities said.

“There may be from 12 to 20 chemicals in six large cardboard containers,” Pat Antrim, Orange County Fire Department spokesman said early today. He added that several chemicals had already combined into possible dangerous substances, but firefighters had not reported any explosions.

Dangerous Propellant

In particular, he pointed out, a quantity of hydrazine, a highly volatile propellant widely used in the U.S. space program, had mixed with an acid from a torn container. The spill was reported about 6 p.m. Monday by a passing motorist, who noticed a strange odor about 1.7 miles west of the Riverside County line.

In a four-hour operation, firefighters found about 100 gallons of toxic substances, including oxidizers, acids, corrosives and the propellant. An Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad and a hazardous materials squad from the Huntington Beach Fire Department were flown in by helicopter to aid in the operation. About 60 person wearing breathing devices were seeking to neutralize the chemicals.

No Injuries Reported

No injuries were reported, but the highway is one of the main commuter artery for workers driving between Orange and Riverside counties, Antrim pointed out.

He said representatives were on the scene from the Orange County Fire and Sheriff’s departments, the California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Transportation, the Orange County Health Department, the U.S. Forest Service whose land borders the toxic spill, the district attorney’s office and the Orange County Environmental Management Service.

Antrim compared the seriousness of the situation to the chemical spill that forced the evacuation of several hundred people in Anaheim last spring.