Fire, Police, Hazmat, Bomb Squad Respond to Chemical Spill

Millburn Firefighters and Police, along with Essex County’s Bomb Squad and Nutley’s Hazardous Materials team, called in the state Department of Environmental Protection team on Friday night to test chemicals that had leaked from cracked 50-year-old bottles in a Millburn garage.

At about 9:30 p.m., DEP officials performed tests on the chemicals and  determined they did not pose a danger to the homeowners or the neighborhood, but called  in a contractor to have them properly removed, said Millburn Fire Battalion Chief Robert Eshavarria.

Phil Kirsch, the owner of the home on Cedar Street, said the bottles have been in his garage for at least 50 years – ever since his father, a scientist who is now 93, worked in pharmaceuticals and brought them home.

His dad had been a VP for Production at Schering Plow and had left in the garage a couple of wooden crates marked Merck Chemical  that held eight or 10 bottles each, he said.

“I was cleaning out the garage today and moving things around when a bottle broke," Mr. Kirsch said. "It must have hit something.”

At that point, Kirsch said, there were fumes and a strong odor.

“My eyes got a little irritated with the fumes," Kirsch said.  The fumes were strong enough that Kirsch thought he  have it checked out, especially with pets that stay in the house when he and his wife are not there.

“The services in this town are so great," he said. "I thought I better call the fire department to see what they thought.”

Before he knew it, the Millburn First Aid & Rescue Squad was there to check him out, the Fire and Police Departments came and called in the county’s bomb squad and  Nutley's Haz-Mat team.

Since firefighters didn't know what was in the bottles, they couldn't be sure that it was safe or whether there could be a chemical reaction, Eshavarria said.

Firefighters blocked Cedar Street and lit up Kirsch's house with floodlights from the fire engines parked out front, and Kirsch spent the next few hours were spent talking with police and firefighters.

“Those bottles are so old, there’s no telling what it could be,” he said.

Kirsch said he called his father, who now lives in Manhattan and was out to dinner at the time, to ask him if he remembered what was in the bottles, and his dad told him it was probably some kind of acid.

The DEP determined that Kirsch’s dad was right – that it was some form of acid --  and had contacted a contractor who specializes in safely disposing chemicals that are bad for the environment, Eshavarria said.

"At least we'll be getting rid of all that after all these years," Kirsch said. "There's a lesson in letting it sit around so long."