ATHOL – Hazardous material crews spent much of Monday night and Tuesday morning on the scene of an ammonia spill in the basement of the Pizza Bar.

Athol Fire Chief Joseph Guarnera said the spill posed a significant risk to people and properties in the area. Pizza Bar is located at 1261 Chestnut St. in Athol.

“They were doing some demolition in the basement,” Guarnera told the Athol Daily News, “at which time they cut through some ammonia piping that has been there since the 40s, when they used to produce ice cream there. A very large amount of ammonia had been released, to the point where I called a Tier 2 hazmat response, which brought about 15 hazmat techs from the state to do meter readings and see how safe it was to enter and figure out what the problem was.”

Guarnera said the ammonia leak was so large that the meters spiked. The levels were so high “that it was probably right around where the flammable area would be, if not in it itself. So at that time, having that much ammonia vapor in that building – it being both a flammable and a corrosive gas – at any time we could have a tragic situation if there had been an explosion.”

The chief said that ammonia is a corrosive, flammable gas, and even though the Pizza Bar was closed, the pilot lights were on in the kitchen area. Propane and power to the building were shut off, and the ammonia was vented out to bring it below the explosive level.

Guarnera said crews were on the scene from about 6:30 p.m. Monday evening to 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday, returning at 8 a.m.

“Police secured the scene until we could come back (Tuesday) morning,” said Guarnera. “I activated the state hazmat team again to a Tier 1, which brings a technical operations module with a tox unit filled with equipment, along with five hazmat techs. They (had) to do some air monitoring again to see what the levels are in the building.”

The building is owned by George Yiantsidis of Rutland, while the restaurant is operated by Luke Joseph. Guarnera said the owner is going to have to contact his insurance company to get an ammonia and cleanup company to expel any further ammonia in any of the lines. There are no tanks on site.

“What I think happened was, there was just ammonia sitting in those refrigeration lines and by cutting through them, it just dissipated and dissipated and dissipated,” said the chief.

The chief said the call reporting the problem came just in time, as people working in the basement on a new foundation had left earlier in the day. At around 6 p.m. on Monday, an electrician had gone in to do some work, smelled the ammonia and called it in.

“He called the station, at which time one of the captains on shift came and did an investigation,” said Guarnera. “He could smell it right off the bat. He called me; I came up and made the same determination. The determination was we can’t go in there, we don’t have the equipment to do so, we activated the state hazmat team.

“So, it all started with the electrician just to do his electrical work at about six o’clock. He smelled the odor, and if hadn’t showed up to do his work, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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