Saugus school closes after chemicals leak

SAUGUS – Saugus firefighters and public health officials evacuated the Ballard Early Childhood Center Wednesday morning after a can of acrylic-spray sealer ruptured, said Fire Capt. Donald McQuaid.McQuaid said a teacher brought a can of Mod Podge acrylic sealer to class for an art project after the can had been left in her car overnight, he said.?It must have frozen and when they brought it in to use, it fell off the shelf and the can ruptured,” said McQuaid. “There was an odor in the school. That?s why the rest of the school was evacuated. It wasn?t a big explosion by any stretch of the imagination.”Donna McNeil, executive assistant to the superintendent, said the Ballard School will be open today.Principal Marie Bridges said the incident occurred during a pre-K class taught by Barbara Wall, who was transported to an area hospital as a precaution.?(Wall) was concerned about the vapors, so to protect the kids she held up the can and held it to her chest and walked out of the building with it,” said McQuaid. “She seemed fine, but she had the liquid on her so we were concerned. We had the ambulance transfer her just for precaution.”McQuaid said there were no injuries Wednesday, but he was concerned because the acrylic contains the chemicals acetone and xylene.Public Health Director Frank Giacalone responded to the scene and said an environmental clean-up team will work to clean up the school.?We wanted to make sure the proper procedures were followed with the acrylic,” said Giacalone. “The safety of the children is the No. 1 concern, that they?re not going to be affected by any residual odor that might be left over. We don?t know how long the odor can last.”Giacalone said he?ll also be conducting air-quality tests as a precaution.?The release of the chemical was not airborne and did not hit any children,” said Giacalone. “I don?t see any vents or exhaust that could pull it into any other room. But it?s acrylic so it?s very odorous.”John Hatch picked up his 5-year-old granddaughter Kendall at the Veterans School after receiving a call while he was at work.?They told me the school had been evacuated and they asked for me to come up and get Kendall,” said Hatch. “They had a container that blew and didn?t know if it was hazardous or not so they evacuated the school. I just came up and got her.”Wendy Greer picked up her 4-year-old son Anoki Wednesday and said she was happy with how smooth the evacuation went.?I really think that the Ballard (officials) handled the situation as professionally and calmly as they could,” said Greer.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].