Hotel building evacuated after acid leak

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

An eight-story building at the Sheraton Waikiki was evacuated for about three hours yesterday after a form of hydrochloric acid used for cleaning leaked into a maintenance room, sending noxious fumes wafting through the top three floors.

Three hotel employees and two guests were taken by ambulance to Straub Medical Center's emergency room for treatment after complaining of nausea and throat irritation. Hotel officials said none of them was admitted to the hospital.

Two other employees with similar symptoms refused to go to the hospital, said Emergency Medical Services paramedic Chester Sukekane.

Most hotel guests were unaffected by the incident, and streamed in and out of the main part of the hotel — separate from the evacuated area — past the fire trucks and ambulance parked outside the main lobby. Several guests were dressed in wedding attire and trailed attendants and photographers past the emergency vehicles.

Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said a 5-gallon plastic container in an eighth-floor maintenance room had leaked Testrox, a substance containing hydrochloric acid, through a fingertip-sized hole.

The acid had leaked onto water pipes and dripped down them into a stairwell leading into the sixth and seventh floors.

Fumes from the substance are harsh and irritating, but had the acid mixed with water, the situation would have been worse, Tejada said. The hydrogen chloride gas formed by the combination can burn lungs.

Firefighters used soda ash to neutralize the spilled chemical.

Firefighters were called to the hotel about 1 p.m. and left shortly after 4 p.m. Guests and workers were allowed back into their rooms and offices shortly afterward.

B.J. Whitman, director of public relations for the Sheraton Hotels in Waikiki, said a maintenance worker had noticed something dripping from the pipes and had tried to dry them with a wet-dry vacuum. When he noticed the substance emitting toxic fumes, he notified hotel management.

A guest called a few moments later and the hotel evacuated the building.

The building, known as the Manor Wing, contains 61 guest rooms, 58 of which were rented. However, only about 20 Mid-Pacific Institute students, guests of the hotel, were in their rooms at the time, she said.

The two guests taken to Straub are Mid-Pacific students.

The building also contains offices including the hotel's reservation desk, and those employees were also evacuated, along with the maintenance and housekeeping employees.

The chemical was used to clean lime scales off pipes, Whitman said, and was stored in its original container.

Neither Whitman or Tejada knew what caused the container to leak.

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.