Truro's Rath Centre evacuated after chlorine leak

A community recreational centre in Truro was evacuated Wednesday afternoon after a maintenance worker detected a chlorine leak in the basement.

Emergency crews were called to the Rath Eastlink Community Centre around 12:30 p.m., including hazmat teams from four communities who were in training nearby. 

"We were fortunate that they were all training in one area so when the call came in, we made contact with the hazmat team, and they had all the resources there to send to us," said Truro Fire Chief Blois Currie.

The hazmat team located the leak in a pipe connected to a 1000-gallon tank of chlorine, which was leaking onto a container of hydrochloric acid. Currie says the situation could have been much worse, as the two chemicals can be deadly when mixed together.

No one was injured in the evacuation.

Matt Moore, the general manager of the centre, said there are standard protocols in place for these types of emergency situations.

"We value staff and public safety and we didn't want to mess around and just insured that the hazmat team came in and assessed the situation before we moved forward with any sort of operations," he said.

The Hazmat team plugged the leak and diluted the spill with water, which was then safe to drain out of the basement drainage system.

The Rath Centre is now open to the public again, except for the pool, which is expected to reopen Thursday at 10 a.m.