Small industrial fire causes scare

An early morning fire Tuesday at Cal Arm Industries, a metal plating

company in Huntington Beach sent out a ripple of alarm as firefighters

feared a possible hazardous chemical leak.

Hazardous Material teams were called out to a small fire on Container

Drive, when Huntington Beach firefighters learned the company uses

hazardous materials in its processes, said Bob Colhane, public

information officer for the Huntington Beach Fire Department.

Hazardous Materials teams from Huntington Beach and Santa Ana arrived

and extinguished a small fire that had ignited when an empty solution vat

overheated. The building’s sprinkler system took care of the majority of

the fire.

The vat normally contained a Rhodium solution and had been emptied and

cleaned the previous day, said Colhane.

No one was injured and no hazardous materials were released into the

environment.