FUMES FROM METH-LAB BARRELS FORCE EVACUATION

Hazard: Fifty Seniors And 10 Businesses In Westminster Flee Hydrochloric
Acid Leak.

Ten Westminster businesses and a home for senior citizens were
evacuated Wednesday after authorities discovered leaking barrels of
hydrochloric acid dumped behind a Little Saigon store, fire officials
said.

A worker called police shortly before noon after finding three
5-foot-tall containers propped against a fence in the 14900 block of
Dillow Street. Fumes spewed from at least one of the barrels, forming
a small cloud.

Firefighters and a hazardous materials team determined that the
hydrochloric acid was left over from a methamphetamine lab. It was the
third such dumping incident in the area in less than two months, fire
officials said. A private contractor that specializes in the disposal
of chemicals diluted the solution, which produced enough air pressure
to blow the valve off the top of the barrel.

"That's what makes this unsafe, not knowing what was mixed, how long
it had been mixed or how much was mixed," said Battalion Chief Don
Forsyth of the Orange County Fire Authority. "This isn't something
that you can just go out and buy."

Employees at 10 businesses and 50 senior citizens from the Family
Christian Home, who are mostly Vietnamese immigrants, were evacuated.

The American Red Cross and the Westminster Senior Center provided
translation services, food and shelter for many of the residents.
Others waited under trees or walked along Bolsa Avenue until they were
allowed to return to their homes.

Minh Trong, a Vietnamese author who has lived in the two-story senior
complex for 10 months, was writing when fire officials knocked on his
door. He left with only the gray sweatsuit he was wearing, a pair of
slippers and several Vietnamese magazines.

"This is an inconvenience but it's worth it to make sure we're safe,"
Trong said.

Officials said the barrels are often used to mix chemicals to produce
hydrochloric acid, which can be used to make meth. Police are
investigating, he said.

Huge barrels were also discovered last month about a mile away at
Brookhurst Street and Hazard Avenue, where no one was evacuated, and
on Aug. 18, at Weststate Street and Bolsa Avenue, where 50 people were
evacuated from 15 businesses.