Posted on: Thursday, March 17, 2005

Hazmat experts to move vials

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Army hazardous materials specialists plan to move 100 vials containing an unknown chemical from the driveway of a Wilhelmina Rise home today.

The operation is scheduled to begin at about 9 a.m., according to U.S. Army Pacific spokeswoman Mary Markovinovic. A certified packer will transfer the vials individually from a cardboard box secured in the driveway of the home at 1611-A Pa'ula Drive — where they have been kept since Monday — and place each in a container, said Markovinovic.

The vials will be taken to an unidentified military base. Then a technical escort team from the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, due to arrive in Hawai'i late this afternoon, will determine what the chemical is and how to dispose of it.

The suspicion is that the vials are from a military test kit, possibly for mustard gas, that's at least 50 years old.

There are no immediate plans to evacuate neighbors, but police will advise them to keep their windows closed, Markovinovic said.

The vials were actually found about a year ago in a wooden box under the house of the late Ernest "Tommy" Thomas, a chemical engineer for the Army and later Pacific Chemical & Fertilizer, and his wife, the late Harriett Jean "Rusty" Thomas. She was a former Honolulu Star-Bulletin food editor.

Kelly McArthur, who became the couple's caregiver about two years ago, found the vials in a wooden box and stored them in the garage.

McArthur has been cleaning up the house since the death last year of Rusty Thomas, who survived her husband by two years. McArthur found one of the vials broken when she reopened the box. She took a vial Monday to the state Department of Health, seeking instructions on disposal.

Although no testing was done on the contents of the vial, Liz Galvez, an on-site coordinator for the Health Department's Hazard Evaluation & Emergency Response office, alerted military and Fire Department hazardous materials officials on Tuesday.

McArthur placed the vials in a cardboard box and put the box on top of cat litter. Officials have since placed a barrel over the box and a plastic rubbish container over the barrel, she said.

Tommy and Rusty Thomas moved into their Wilhelmina Drive residence in 1950.

Tommy Thomas was the chemical officer for the 35th Infantry Division in 1941. McArthur has his personal papers documenting his life's experiences. Of that time in his life, he wrote:

"I was given increased responsibilities in the division chemical office. I was appointed supply officer. I immediately got my hands on all of the Army manuals covering chemical warfare equipment and other topics and set a goal of learning all there was to learn on the subject. Not only did I build up a library for the office, I collected a set of information for my personal files."

McArthur said it's a mystery to her why the chemicals were under the house.

"I wonder if he actually put it there," McArthur said. "If he did, he might have gotten sidetracked and forgot about them. But I know he would never intentionally bring something dangerous home. I'd like to find out what it is."

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.