Burnaby firefighters were packing up and leaving the scene at 3131 Lake City Way at noon Thursday after a hazardous materials scare.
The incident, which took place in front of the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company Inc., began on Thursday morning just before 9 a.m., when workers unloading coffee from a truck noticed a suspicious package, an envelope containing a white powdery substance, and called the fire department.
According to Mike Bolam, acting captain and hazardous materials trainer for the Burnaby Fire Department, the white powder contained two to three ounces of phosphine, a highly toxic material that is most dangerous after water is added to it.
The phosphine, also known as PH3, is used by coffee and cocoa companies to fumigate areas because of rodents. The small envelope had been inadvertently left behind.
Bolam said while two people did come into contact with the chemical, they were treated at the scene.
Bolam said the fire department took every precaution during this incident.
"When we went to check it out, our volatile (materials) detector just went nuts so we decided to treat this as a serious situation," said Bolam. "There was an active chemical, a very deadly chemical when water is added to it ... and fortunately, it was still dry."
The chemical itself was contained in a drum and transported for disposal.
Bolam said indications are that there was nothing malicious about the chemical being left in front of the coffee company's offices and he would be spending Thursday afternoon doing a debrief of the situation.
The Burnaby RCMP assisted firefighters by closing off Lake City Way to car traffic. Foot traffic was still going through the area, as people were walking unimpeded to the adjacent SkyTrain station and camera crews from Global Television, a block away on Enterprise Street, were some of the first people on the scene.
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