A staff member from the laundry company at the centre of a chlorine gas incident at Frankton yesterday said last night a man taken to hospital was ‘‘fine''.
The man, who did not work for the laundry, was taken to Lakes District Hospital and part of Frankton's industrial area was evacuated when two chemicals at Southern Lakes Laundries in Glenda Dr were inadvertently mixed and released the deadly chlorine gas at 7.35am.
Details of how the mix-up happened were unclear last night.
The laundry staff member did not want to be named or provide details of the injured man, and a condition update was not available last night.
No-one else from the laundry could be contacted yesterday.
When fire crews were called at 7.35am they evacuated both the laundry and nearby buildings.
Tony Adamson, the owner of Frankton Automotive, a few doors along from the laundry, said he was initially told not to leave his building.
By 9.45am the fire crew told him he needed to evacuate with ‘‘no big panic'', but about five minutes later the crew told him to get out ‘‘now''. M-Developments Ltd manager, Chris Moore, who was not evacuated because the company's building was just outside the cordon, said he could smell the chemicals at one point but was not too worried.
‘‘It's an industrial area ... it's just one of these things that can happen,'' he said.
Firefighters from Frankton and Queenstown set up a 400m cordon around Glenda Dr and anyone with tingling lips or a sore throat was advised to seek medical attention from St John paramedics on the scene.
Specialist chemical monitoring equipment for detecting chlorine gas was flown from Dunedin and fire crews came from Invercargill.
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and protective equipment stabilised the container holding the chemical just after midday and ventilated the laundry.
A Queenstown Lakes District Council spokeswoman said the cordons were lifted by 3.30pm after a thorough inspection of the commercial laundry showed no trace of chlorine gas remaining.
Queenstown brigade deputy chief fire officer Andrew Bary said the occupants of neighbouring buildings which were cleared were also allowed to return then. Police set up an alternative route out for those trapped by the cordon in Glenda Dr.
