Crime & Safety
Part of Scenic Avenue Closed Sunday Night for Odor Investigation
The smell was traced to a spilled chemical that had been stored at a resident's home. A hazmat team was called in to clean up the spill.
The 200 block of Scenic Avenue was closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic for three hours Sunday evening while Piedmont police and firefighters and a private hazardous materials team investigated the source of a pungent odor, a Piedmont Police Department dispatcher said.
The odor was traced to spillage of a chemical stored at a resident's home, the dispatcher said.
Emergency personnel were alerted to the problem when a Scenic Avenue resident phoned about 7:15 p.m. to report a strong odor of gas in the neighborhood, he said.
The 200 block of Scenic was closed to foot and vehicle traffic, and a public safety dispatch asking nearby residents to remain inside their homes during the investigation was issued at 8:24 p.m. The dispatch also asked other Piedmont residents to avoid the area.
Firefighters determined that the smell was not from a natural gas leak but from an old, stored chemical that had spilled, the dispatcher said.
A hazmat team from Morgan Environmental Services Inc., a private Oakland-based company that specializes in hazardous materials clean-up, was called in to mop up the spill, he said.
The area was reopened to traffic and residents were allowed to leave their homes about 11:40 p.m.
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