Two incidents keep HVFD, Haz-Mat team busy

By The Sun Staff

Two workers at plastic bead manufacturer Greene Plastics were transported to Westerly Hospital Monday as a precaution after fumes emanating from a machine sickened them.

The Hope Valley-Wyoming Fire Department, along with its hazardous-materials team, was at the factory site on Canonchet Road in Hope Valley at about 1 p.m. HVFD Haz-Mat Capt. David Dumsar said the employees were working with a product that they don't ordinarily work with and the machine they were using was running too hot, causing three people exposure to formaldehyde gas. The machine was immediately shut down, said Dumsar.

He said the plant was evacuated. He said the two workers who were transported were already feeling better when they were out in the fresh air. Workers were out of the building for 15 to 20 minutes.

In an unrelated incident, the fire department and haz-mat teams were called out again this morning when the driver of a tractor-trailer rig carrying twin-boxes for retailer Advance Auto Parts took down a swath of guardrail and veered into the woods off Interstate 95 near Exit 3A, north, in Richmond at 4:30 a.m. The incident was not cleared until 8 a.m. Fire Chief Fred Stanley said it was extremely foggy at the time of the accident. Stanley said William L. Chambers, 37, of Fleetwood, Penn., suffered minor injuries and was not transported to the hospital.

The crash, which required the local haz-mat team for a fuel leak, also garnered a response from the state departments of environmental management and transportation as well as the Rhode Island State Police. The contents of the boxes were reportedly not damaged in the incident.