By Katy Moeller
The Idaho Statesman

WILDER, Idaho — An employee accidentally turned the wrong valve at a meat processing plant in Wilder on Thursday morning, exposing fellow workers to anhydrous ammonia gas and sending 18 people to area hospitals.

Some of the roughly 90 workers on duty at SSI Food Services experienced nausea, headaches, sore throats and stinging eyes from ammonia liquid that vaporized into gas.

Thirteen people were taken to West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, a hospital official said; five went to Mercy Medical Center in Nampa.

"There are no serious injuries, and we don't expect any of the patients to be hospitalized overnight," John McGee, a West Valley spokesman, said.

McGee said patients' throat and eye irritation and other such symptoms should be gone within 24 hours.

Anhydrous ammonia is used in refrigeration at the plant. In the U.S., about 140 million metric tons are produced commercially each year, with about 90 percent used as fertilizer.

Exposure to high levels of ammonia in the air may irritate skin, eyes, throat, and lungs and cause coughing and burns.

Doug Amick, chief of the Wilder Rural Fire Protection District, said the call for help came in to Canyon County dispatch at about 10:40 a.m.

"Everybody was walking wounded," Amick said. "We started treatment with oxygen and rinsed out their eyes."

The all-volunteer Wilder Fire Department has 25 firefighters/EMTs, but no ambulance. Three other agencies took care of that - Canyon County Ambulance, Homedale Ambulance and Parma Ambulance.

"We had ambulances that transported into the hospital and came back for more," Amick said.

The rural fire district volunteers have responded to 207 calls this year, including 70 fires.

"This type of call is somewhat rare," Amick said.

About 400 people work at SSI Food Services, a division of Wilder-based CTI Foods. The plant, which has been operating since 1986, processes boneless beef, chicken and pork for restaurant chains all over the country.

Keith Dunning, a spokesman for SSI, said an experienced employee at the meat processing plant accidentally turned a valve that released liquid ammonia.

The employee, who has been with the company 15 years, thought he was turning a valve adjusting the freezer temperature, Dunning said.

When the employee saw a frozen chunk of ammonia and then liquid come out after he turned the valve, he thought it was broken and immediately notified plant workers to evacuate the building.

"It was just a mistake," Dunning said. "The liquid seeped into the production area below where he was working. The air flow moved it around the entire plant."

Dunning said exhaust fans at the facility were used to flush the ammonia - and odor - out of the air. After a pizza lunch, most employees were back at work Thursday.

"We have not finished our investigation yet," Dunning said.

An SSI engineer is looking into ways to prevent future accidents, and state and federal regulatory officials have been notified of the incident, Dunning said.

He said a similar incident occurred about 10 years ago in a different part of the plant.

Copyright 2007 The Idaho Statesman
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News