CYPRESS : Noxious Gas From Overheated Clay Sends 6 to Hospital

Modeling clay for making prototypes of new automobiles overheated in a baking oven and unleashed a noxious gas Monday that overcame six people at the Mitsubishi Motors Corp. complex in Cypress, fire officials said.

Four firefighters and two Mitsubishi employees were treated and released at Los Alamitos Medical Center after the 7 a.m. incident. Orange County fire officials evacuated 475 employees from the sprawling complex in the 6400 block of Katella Avenue. Most workers were allowed back in their offices about 1 p.m.

“They basically got a long lunch break,” said Mitsubishi spokesman Mitch McCullough.

The gas was concentrated inside a Mitsubishi design studio. Investigators found that a small oven used to soften modeling clay became overheated, unleashing a sulfuric gas, Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Sabol said. The gas is considered highly toxic if left in a confined space for a long period of time.

Four county firefighters suffered dizziness and shortness of breath after being overcome by the gases as they entered the building.

The two Mitsubishi employees who were taken to the hospital, identified by fire officials as David O’Cannell, 31, of Costa Mesa, and Paul Scilina , 26, of Garden Grove, had suffered the same symptoms after reporting to work, according to Dennis Shell, Fire Department public information officer.

Other workers who entered the design studio briefly before firefighters arrived reported a sulfuric, rotten-egg smell. They left immediately and did not experience any symptoms.

“We have no idea what it is,” Matt McAuliffe, a modeler, said as he and a group of other studio workers stood outside the building early this morning. “They just shut it (the building) down and told everyone to leave.”

Although the gases originated in the design studio, where about 15 employees work, fire officials ordered the evacuation of the entire Mitsubishi complex, which includes the Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America national and regional headquarters, a separate parts distribution building and a service training facility.

“We are downwind, so they’re telling us not to come in,” said Marilyn Wapato, administrative services manager for Mitsubishi’s U.S. national headquarters.

Both Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which operates the design studio, are subsidiaries of Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, Wapato said.

About 30 firefighters assisted in the gas investigation, including hazardous materials teams from Newport Beach and Huntington Beach as well as the county. Firefighters wearing protective gear entered the design studio and brought the small oven outside to cool, Sabol said. They also opened windows and doors to ventilate the gases.

Mitsubishi officials said damage was confined to the overheated oven, which they said became so hot that the buttons melted.

The overheating apparently resulted from a malfunction within the oven.