QC factory’s operations suspended after leak; evacuation mulled

FOOD and plastic input manufacturing group D&L Industries has suspended the operations of its factory in Bagumbayan, Quezon City, after residents in the area complained of fumes and an unpleasant odor starting Sunday afternoon.

As this developed, a hospital’s poison control unit was now “assessing the level of toxicity” of the fumes to determine if an evacuation was necessary.

In a statement, D&L said that the fumes were “under control” in the immediate vicinity as of 6 a.m. Monday.

Following the incident, the firm announced that operations at the plant operated by Chemrez Inc. were currently suspended and would likely remain on hold in the next few days.

Chemrez Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chemrez Technologies, one of the wholly-owned subsidiaries of D&L Industries.

Some residents complained on social media that the odor still lingered in the area as of

2 a.m. Monday, with the smell reaching as far as Barangay Manggahan in Pasig City. Others reported that they were forced to leave their houses due to the fumes which smelled similar to paint or rugby.

Asked for an update, Quezon City fire marshal Supt. Jesus Fernandez said that “the chemical where the gas is coming from is already stable. The factory is using its sprinklers to cool it and to solidify the styrene monomer.”

“We’ve sent two fire trucks earlier today to augment D&L’s fire trucks and to supplement [the] cooling [process],” Fernandez added. “We need to maintain a temperature of 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit so it’s not dangerous. The flash point, or the point where it can heat up and catch fire, is 142 degrees,” he explained.

Fernandez advised the community to keep away from the area in the meantime because he acknowledged that “the fumes make it hard to breathe.”

At 1:48 p.m. Sunday, D&L reported that fumes from the plant in Calle Industria had spread around the plant site.

It added that these had emanated from the vents of a storage tank containing monomer, the raw material used in making polymers like polystyrene plastic pellets.

“The fumes were caused by heat generated when monomer starts to polymerize. As it polymerizes, it generates fumes which come out of the vapor relief valve installed on the roof of the storage tank,” it said.