Olin residents return after evacuating due to anhydrous ammonia leak

UPDATE: The town of Olin was reopened to residents around 2:30 a.m. today after a leak in an anhydrous ammonia storage tank sent a plume of the potentially dangerous gas over the town Sunday night.

The leak at the River Valley Co-op on the south edge of town was reported about 9:45 p.m., and the order to evacuate came about 30 minutes later, Residents were told shortly after midnight they'd be allowed back after the plume had dissipated, and road blocks remain in place.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Breathing ammonia can cause burns to the lung and asphyxiation. Firefighters from Olin and neighboring towns went door to door to rouse the town's approximately 700 residents.

“It was like fog,” said Becky Westphal as she and several dozen residents waited out the gas cloud at the Morley Community Building.

Westphal, who lives about two blocks from the co-op, said she was in bed when the evacuation order was first passed over the town's Civil Defense loudspeakers.

“I thought I was dreaming” until firefighters knocked on her door, Westphal said.

“It was flowing through town pretty good,” said Jill Eganhouse.

After hearing the news Eganhouse, 50, drove from her home on Olin's north side to get her father from his home across town. When she rolled down her car's window to talk to a police officer, “I couldn't even breathe,” she said.

“By the time I got there, got him in the car, and got back, it was all through town,” she said.

With only a slight southerly breeze, residents said the gas plume hung heavily over the town.

“We could smell it when we went out the door,” said Sara Jane Frazier.

Firefighters and hazmat crews are on the scene of an anhydrous ammonia leak near Olin on Sunday, October 4, 2009. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)