Exploding chlorine mix made safe thanks to fast-acting Wood River Fire Department, Aquatic Center workers

WOOD RIVER - The Wood River Fire Department and Wood River Aquatic Center employees took a potentially scary situation on Tuesday afternoon with chlorine explosions and made it into a safe one for users later in the evening.

The initial fire call to the Wood River Aquatic Center was dispatched to the Wood River Fire Department at 4:05 p.m. The pool was reopened for a party at 7 p.m. after the chlorine mix was removed by the firefighters. Madison County Haz-Mat members were called to the scene and tested the area to make sure it and the air was clear before the pool was reopened.

Jake Sanders is a Wood River Aquatic Center pool maintenance employee who was on duty at the time of the incident and reported back to the scene. He said it was “a scary situation at first,” but one that had a positive end result thanks to the work of the Wood River Fire Department and no one was injured.

“At first we didn’t know what was going on with the explosions, but the pool was quickly evacuated and shut down,” he said. “There were probably about 150 people at the pool when this started. We had bought some new chlorine and it was accidentally mixed with the old chlorine in an 8-10-gallon bucket and heated together from 10 in the morning until the time this happened. I guess the chemicals of the two chlorines reacted in the bucket and started blowing up after being heated by the sun.

“There was an estimated 60 to 70 explosions that occurred, but we don’t know for sure exactly how many; it all happened so fast. The Wood River Fire Department figured it out and cleared the scene of the mixed chemicals. Haz-Mat made sure the air was OK and the pool was reopened.”

 Tyler Bress was the Aquatic Center manager on duty when the incident happened and agreed it was pretty scary at first, but no one was injured and no one needed medical attention.

“The important thing is everyone was safe,” he said. “Wood River Avenue was closed and they were directing traffic up Park Avenue,” he said “The fire department did an excellent job getting everything cleaned up and secure where we could get back open for the party at 7 o’clock. Wood River Avenue was opened back up at about 5:45 p.m., then the pool reopened at 7 p.m. after everything was cleared and OK’d to open again.”

Bress and Sanders said the pool would reopen as normal on Wednesday morning and the 30^th annual Wood River Triathlon was on as planned for Saturday.

Sanders encouraged people to come out on Saturday morning to the Wood River Triathlon.

“I encourage everyone to cheer people on Saturday,” he said.

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