The chemical spilled at a Dunedin freight depot yesterday which resulted in a manager heading to hospital for observation was a concentrated and highly corrosive acid.
Fire crews from around the city converged on the PBT Transport depot in Strathallan St about 8am, after the container of nitric acid tipped off a pallet, and were there all morning helping with the clean-up.
PBT workers evacuated the buildings as police directed traffic near the Otaki St intersection, and blocked off Strathallan St near Andersons Bay Rd for a time.
Senior Station Officer Simon Smith, of Dunedin City Station, said one of several chemical containers had spilled inside and a manager was taken to hospital as a precaution.
''Because there were multiple chemicals in that area we always go to the highest level of protection,'' he said.
The firefighters used absorbing agents to help soak up the spilled acid.
University of Otago chemistry professor Lyall Hanton was called in as part of his role on the Hazardous Substance Technical Liaison Committee to help ascertain the nature of the spilled chemical.
Prof Hanton consulted the paperwork, which he said was all in order, to determine the substance was concentrated nitric acid.
Nitric acid is frequently used for the production of fertilisers, particularly ammonium nitrate, and is also used in research, although it was unclear where the chemicals were headed.
A manager on site went to investigate and inhaled a lung full of the strong fumes of the corrosive acid, he said.
He was taken to hospital for observation but Prof Hanton believed he would recover quickly and without lasting damage.
''It's a bit tough on the old mucus membranes but I think he will be fine.''
Prof Hanton was proved right, as by yesterday afternoon the manager was back at work at the reopened depot, a woman working there said.
