ALOR GAJAH: The Melaka Fire and Rescue Department has contained an ammonia gas lead at a factory in Masjid Tanah Industrial Park here.
Head of Zone 2 and specialist in Hazardous Chemicals (hazmat) and CBRNe (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives) of Melaka Bomba, Fire Supt Zulkhairani Ramli said they received an emergency call at 1.47am on Sunday (June 7) and deployed a team to the location.
"We established a 50m safety perimeter to conduct a risk assessment and a hazard control zone before gas concentration measurements were carried out.
"The initial concentration of ammonia gas was recorded at 300 parts per million (ppm) inside the building and 75ppm outside the building. The team then sealed the tank valve before using a vapour dispersion technique with water fog," he said here on Sunday.
Zulkhairani said continuous monitoring found that gas readings decreases to 74ppm (inside) and 35ppm (outside), before decreasing to 50ppm (inside) and 25ppm (outside) before the operation was called off at 8.17am.
He said the incident involved a leak in two ammonia tank units with a capacity of 2,600 litres with a total of approximately 5,200 litres of the substance at the premises in question.
He said the operation involved a force of 12 personnel including seven members of the Hazmat & CBRNe team from Alor Gajah and five members of Masjid Tanah station as well as the assistance of the police. – Bernama
