Hazardous materials safely disposed after controlled detonations in SW Calgary

Crews have safely disposed of hazardous materials that were found in a Calgary industrial area earlier this week.

The city’s Emergency Operations Centre was activated on Tuesday evening after a business in the Manchester Industrial Area received a suspicious package around noon and called police.

Police say the package contained the chemical picric acid and was supposed to be disposed of by a local moving company, but was mislabelled and had been sitting for more than a week when it was discovered. Picric acid becomes highly unstable and flammable when it is dried, according to officials.

Due to the elevated hazard of moving the chemicals, the CPS Tactical Unit was forced to move forward with detonations at the site where the package was found as a way to safely get rid of it.

Crews began controlled detonations on Wednesday afternoon that continued into the evening. After some testing and analysis, it was determined they would be able to safely move the remainder of the materials to a “designated safe site.”

Crews continued the controlled detonations at the designated site on Thursday and now say the issue at Manchester Industrial site has been resolved and all hazardous materials have been disposed of.

“This has been a very dynamic situation,” says CPS Deputy Chief Cliff O’Brien. “As it progressed we constantly assessed our tactics to continue to ensure public safety.”

“We were trying very hard to minimize disruption to our community.”

The evacuation zone in the Manchester Industrial area has been lifted, and all roads have been reopened. Any impact to Calgary Transit CTrains and buses has also been resolved.

City officials closed the Emergency Operations Centre at 2 p.m.

Police continue to investigate what led up to the incident.