BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Fire Department is on scene at the Overland Station post office on W. Targee Street, for a reported hazmat situation.
Crews arrived to a call for a small amount of spilled mercury in the parking lot, and Idaho News 6 crews on the scene report seeing two hazmat vehicles and one fire truck, with crews checking the underside of people's shoes.
The call came in just before 4:40 p.m. as a Hazardous Materials Response, and as of Thursday, March 15, around 5:45 p.m. the parking lot of the post office remains closed off while crews make sure the area is safe.
Battalion Chief Jeff Root, says “We had a report that somebody a jar of it, they were transferring it into another jar dropped the jar, based on the silvery appearance over in the parking lot it's probably in the neighborhood of a cup or cup and half maybe.”
Once arriving on the scene, they checked to see if anything was tracked inside from the parking lot then they made sure all employees and patrons were out of the building.
One woman, who was on the scene, was the person who made the spill, she didn't want to be on camera but said the mercury was her roommate's.
She says, “It’s halfway full there is quite a bit of over there and you can see there's still some in there which is why I put it in another jar.”
She was driving her roommate's car to the post office, she needed to use the bathroom and decided to go inside the building. That’s when the jar fell out of the car and hit the ground.
“Went home, went to the bathroom, came back, I got like plastic gloves and stuff like that because I was going to try and clean it up more and I called my boyfriend, and he was like call the fire department now babe and I was like ‘okay’.’”
That's when Boise Fire and Hazmat arrived, everyone inside and outside of the building was checked and deemed as okay. However, the affected part parking lot is closed off until properly cleaned by crews.
The woman describes the mercury when it spilled, she says, “it was beaded up splattered, it was mostly contained beaded up in the little spot but that splattered quite far actually.”
The CDC says exposure to mercury may cause include: irritation to the eyes, skin, and stomach; cough, chest pain, or difficulty breathing, insomnia, irritability, indecision, headache, weakness or exhaustion, and weight loss. Workers may be harmed from exposure to mercury. The level of exposure depends upon the dose, duration, and work being done.
