SAGINAW COUNTY The leak happened just before 6:30 at the Thomas Township facility. One person
was taken to the hospital.
About an hour later, a chemical release caused concern at a Dow Corning plant in
Midland.
Sirens went off around the Hemlock Semiconductor facility, warning residents in
the area that there was a problem.
"There was a minor leak in one of our manufacturing processes that then caused a
small fire," said Jarrod Erpelding of Hemlock Semiconductor.
Roads around the facility were blocked for about an hour. The emergency response
team at Hemlock Semiconductor and the Thomas Township Fire Department were able
to quickly put the fire out, but an employee of Hemlock Semiconductor was
injured.
"We did have one employee at the site that was taken to the hospital for
inhalation concerns," Erpelding said.
Erpelding says the leak was small, but the company triggered Saginaw County's
911 Emergency Response System, alerting nearby residents of the situation by
phone calls and text messages.
"We did some downwind monitoring to just make sure that we just had a trace of a
chemical, certainly nothing that would be a major problem. As a precaution, we
encouraged all of our residents to shelter in place around the facility," said
Mike Cousins, Thomas Township Fire Chief.
The all-clear was given to residents about an hour after the chemical release.
An hour after the Hemlock Semiconductor incident, a haze was detected near Dow
Corning's Midland facility on Saginaw Road.
The haze was composed of ammonium chloride, which resulted from a small release
of material at the site. It quickly dissipated and the all-clear was given
there.
"We work to try to learn from each one of those incidents. We've learned form
those, we've modified them, we've improved those and I'm actually very pleased
as how that went down this morning," Cousins said.
An investigation has started on what caused the incident at Hemlock
Semiconductor.
