By Joshua Melvin
The San Mateo County Times
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The last of eight people hospitalized Friday following an ammonia leak at a sausage making plant was set to be released Monday, an official said.
The person was held over the weekend for observation, said Fire Marshall Luis DaSilva of the South San Francisco Fire Department, adding that all of the victims are expected to fully recover.
Authorities closed off three Highway 101 exits and evacuated hundreds of people from the area around the Columbus plant at 493 Forbes Blvd. after construction employees discovered the leak at the sausage plant at about 5:30 a.m. Twenty four people were evaluated by paramedics at the scene, but only those who had inhaled the caustic substance, which can cause difficulty breathing and coughing, were taken to the hospital.
Company officials said the leak appears to have been caused by a faulty valve on a roof top ammonia storage tank.
“It was a mechanical failure,” said DaSilva, adding that the leak is not suspicious in nature.
Columbus officials are still working to determine why the valve failed and how much ammonia was released during the leak, said spokesman Joe Streng. Officials said previously that the faulty valve had been changed recently as part of an upgrade of the company’s refrigeration system, which uses ammonia as a coolant.
The leak comes on the heels of a July fire that gutted a nearby Columbus slicing and packaging facility and put in jeopardy the jobs of the plant’s 90 employees. Columbus officials helped about 60 of them find new jobs.
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