By Perry Smith and Kamryn Martell
Signal Staff Writers
Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel evacuated the Audi and Acura dealerships in Valencia after a hazardous materials call about a foul odor on Thursday morning that turned out to be a result of work being done on sewer lines.
The odor also affected the Dodge dealership, according to Battalion Chief Sean Smith with Station 126.
Firefighters were dispatched to the Creekside Road Audi dealer at 10:33 a.m., and they were on the scene five minutes later, according to Jonathan Torres, spokesman for the Fire Department.
The odor was coming from the bathrooms the strongest when Hazmat personnel made the initial entry at Audi, where they used detection tools to confirm the source of the odor was nothing dangerous, Smith said.
Smith said that firefighters were made aware that public works personnel were doing work on the sewer lines along Magic Mountain Parkway when Dodge workers were setting up shop Thursday morning.
Carrie Lujan, public information officer for the city of Santa Clarita, said that the city’s environmental services team was on site with L.A. County’s Sewer and HazMat teams.
“It sounds like they’re just (the workers), they’re either cutting pipes and gluing them because one of the first things on scene, ‘Captain, it smells like some kind of glue or adhesive,’” Smith said.
There were two people complaining of headaches, so Health Hazmat personnel treated them, but there were no transports, Smith said.
Randy Hawker, a sales associate for Acura, said employees noticed a large number of fire trucks responding to the neighboring Audi dealership, which was what brought several people outside. Firefighters then told them the building was being evacuated, he added.
“You can smell something, but it’s hard to describe what it smells like,” Hawker said, adding that some of his coworkers detected a smell, but he hadn’t noticed it upon his arrival at 10:30 a.m.
There were road closures in the area at Valencia Boulevard and Creekside Road during the investigation.
This is a breaking news story, and more information will be published as it becomes available.
