A St. Louis man was airlifted Thursday morning, June 24, to a St. Louis hospital after he accidentally mixed chlorine with an acidic substance in a storage container at the Warrenton City Pool. …
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A St. Louis man was airlifted Thursday morning, June 24, to a St. Louis hospital after he accidentally mixed chlorine with an acidic substance in a storage container at the Warrenton City Pool.
Emergency personnel, including the Warrenton and Wright City Fire Protection districts and hazmat crews, responded to the incident, reported around 10 a.m. The pool was not open at the time.
Warrenton Police Greg Houdyshell said the man, identified as Mathew Bilicki, 47, inhaled fumes from the chemical reaction. The man did not suffer external burns, but could have been injured internally. The spill was contained in the storage area.
Bilicki is an employee of Midwest Pool Management, which has the contract to manage the pool. He was taken by air ambulance to St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur. As of Thursday afternoon, a hospital spokesperson said the man was listed in satisfactory condition. The family requested no more information about the man’s condition be released
Hazmat crews had the area stabilized by Thursday afternoon. The pool reopened Friday.
Three pool employees were present at the time of the incident in the pool office area away from where the chemicals are stored. They were upwind from the storage area and were not harmed, according to Houdyshell.
Warrenton Fire Chief Mike Owenby said a small amount of liquid chlorine was dumped into a container with about 20 to 30 gallons of hydrochloric acid.
“You get a chlorine gas, which is extremely toxic,” Owenby said. “He recognized his mistake fairly early on. I don’t believe he got a lot of the chlorine in there.”
Homes within 600 to 700 feet of the pool were evacuated, along with visitors to the adjacent Binkley Woods Park, Houdyshell said. Other residents within 1,000 feet of the scene were told to stay inside. Residents were allowed back to their homes about three hours later.
“The city did an outstanding job getting people cleared out of the area and making sure folks stayed inside,” Owenby said. “Everything worked out really well. I was really impressed with the response from all the agencies.”
The city pool is located on South Morgan Street.
