Initially thought to be "just" a water leak involves 100's of gallons of flammable chemical at Sherman Hospital, Elgin. How safe do you feel today, Elgin?

Hazmat response at Sherman after 12-hour delay

By Tara García Mathewson

A portion of Sherman Hospital will be closed in coming weeks as cleanup crews repair damage from what was initially believed to be just a water leak but really involved hundreds of gallons of a flammable chemical.

The geothermal lake behind Sherman Hospital, 1425 N. Randall Road, provides an environmentally friendly heating and cooling system with pipes running inside the building from beneath the water level.

According to Assistant Fire Chief Dave Schmidt, one of the pipes in the lower level of the hospital burst at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday. Methanol, an antifreeze used in the geothermal process, was filling the hospital along with the water, necessitating a hazardous materials or HAZMAT response.

“When we realized it was methanol in the water mixture, we immediately called the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and used their direction on how to direct the operations going forward and who to call and when,” hospital spokeswoman Michelle Kustra said Monday.

The Elgin Fire Department and the South Elgin Hazmat team were not called until shortly after 7 p.m., according to Schmidt. They remained on the scene, along with a cleanup team from Wheeling-based SET Environmental Inc., until about 10:30 p.m.

Elgin firefighters went in with hoses ready beside South Elgin hazmat team members in their suits as a precautionary measure.

“Even though the room was being ventilated, there was an outside chance the atmosphere could be conducive to lighting if there was a spark,” Schmidt said. No one was injured while the broken pipe was replaced. And Schmidt said the situation was not deemed critical enough to evacuate anyone from the hospital.

The affected areas were unoccupied administrative space and an outpatient testing area, according to Kustra. Those rooms will continue to be sealed off while cleanup continues and carpet and drywall is replaced.

Kustra said 5,800 gallons of water escaped and 8.5 percent of it was methanol.

This is the first time there has been a problem with the geothermal system’s piping, according to Kustra, but officials are reviewing the infrastructure as a follow-up to the hazmat response Sunday.

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