I’m not sure what the weather is like in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, but by now it’s probably starting to get warm. Here in the mid-South, we’re already getting temperatures in the 90s, so I can only imagine it’s getting warm all over. Except maybe Canada. Either way, there’s not much better for a kid than a good old water gun fight on a warm late spring day! However, if you want to be safe, stay away from sodium hydroxide when you’re having your water fights.
Hazardous materials crews had to be called to a home on Grove Street in Woonsocket after some kids having a water gun fight got H20 in a bucket of sodium hydroxide, causing the barrel to smoke and fill the house with noxious fumes! Sodium hydroxide is commonly used as a drain cleaner, and reacts strongly with water to create that smoke and stink situation. The fumes caused the evacuation of three nearby homes, so odds are that was a pretty big barrel of sodium hydroxide that got wet.
The home’s owner believes the barrel of sodium hydroxide was there when he bought the home.
Tags: Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Grove Street, chemical leak caused by water gun fight, poison leak caused by water guns, sodium hydroxide, unusual accidents