No one was seriously hurt last Thursday morning when chlorine gas erupted in the swimming pool area of Slave Lake’s Super 8 Motel. But there were a few tense moments as two employees rushed to contain the fumes and evacuate all the guests.
Super 8 Manager Laura Vanderwell Ross and one employee were both treated and released at the Slave Lake Health Centre.
What produced the gas was the inadvertent mixing of muriatic (otherwise known as hydrochloric) acid and another form of liquid chlorine. When diluted in small concentrations in water, the two chemicals are normally used to control the pH level in the pool. In their pure form, they are a volatile mix.
“One of my staff went in (to the pool’s chemical room),” says Vanderwell Ross. “She didn’t look at the label. She poured liquid chlorine into the muriatic acid. It’s just human error.”
Getting a strong whiff of chlorine and realizing something was wrong, the woman quickly stepped outside for some fresh air. When she went back in for another look, she encountered billowing yellow gas.
She closed the lid on the container, alerted the manager and they quickly locked the door to the pool, plugged the crack under it with towels, called 911 and began the evacuation process.
The Slave Lake Volunteer Fire Department arrived a few minutes later.
“The place (swimming pool room) was full of chlorine gas when we got there,” says Deputy Fire Chief Jamie Coutts.
What to do about it was a question the fire crew couldn’t answer. They called in a couple of employees from the Town’s water plant, who have experience dealing with the same sort of chemicals. The firefighters brought a sample of the volatile chemical mix outside for examination. The water plant workers tested it and determined what would neutralize it. Then the firefighters took the neutralizing chemical, sodium thiosulphate, into the building and applied it. It worked.
“It was a good exercise in dangerous goods control,” says Coutts.
The final step was to vent the room, which the fire department did with fans it brought for the purpose.
Vanderwell Ross applauds the job the fire department did. She also praises her staff in looking after the evacuation, and the guests too.
“(They) were very cooperative,” she says.
Super 8 is taking the opportunity to perform a couple of weeks’ worth of pool maintenance, which was originally scheduled for this fall. Vanderwell Ross says the chemical handling procedures will also be reviewed.
“We’re making sure it doesn’t happen again,” she says.

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