An ammonia spill at Norco in Lismore early, this afternoon has caused road closures and the evacuation of nearby residents.
An unknown amount of substance was spilt at around 1:30 while workers were conducting maintenance at the factory.
Firefighters spent the afternoon cleaning up and attempting to find the source of the leak.
Me and my partner were walking past when it happened we got half over the casino street bridge and started smelling it and it burnt our nose and lungs so much we had to turn around and then when we turned around and walked back some people told us what happened but the point is we walked right past the fire truck and nobody stopped us from walking over the bridge
They were evacuating nearby residents yet they didn’t evacuate the staff. My partner is working there tonight and she said they were all held in the old part of the factory while the fire and hazmat crews were trying to fix the leak. Now, why evacuate nearby residents but keep the staff there? They should have sent them home!
sometimes it is safer to keep people in the premises than to get them to walk throught the contaminated area, so that they can go home. there are a lot of variables that have to be taken into account, it is easy to find fault when you dont have all the facts. the firefighters have penty to do and think about, and cannot be everywhere to stop people walking along the street, but the people did the right thing and turned around.
there is only so much that a limited ammount of people can do, well done the firefighters