Six firefighters sustain minor injuries battling Phoenix-area blaze
Aug 18, 2016, 3:26 PM
(KTAR Photo/Jim Cross)
(KTAR Photo/Jim Cross)
PHOENIX — Six firefighters sustained minor injuries while battling a blaze at a Phoenix-area pool store on Thursday morning.
The fire started about 3 a.m. inside the Pool Water Products store near 32nd Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix.
“This isn’t our bread and butter beat — not a house fire where we know what we’re dealing with,” Phoenix Fire Capt. Rob McDade said. “Anytime you’re dealing with chemicals is dangerous. Unfortunately our weapon of choice is water and most chemicals don’t like water.”
The store was stocked with chlorine, so in addition to smoke, the chemical was also producing chlorine vapor.
Five firefighters were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation as a precaution.
“We’re lucky,” McDade said. “We took them to the hospital as a precaution. An incident like this with super-heated chlorine gas could made this worse.”
The other injured firefighter sustained a knee injury.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
KTAR’s Jim Cross contributed to this report.
