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Hazardous materials teams descend on a storage unit near Largo and Clearwater's main post office when white substances are found.
By JULIE CHURCH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 23, 2002
When Rebecca and Jerry Nemki first noticed what looked like a chunk of Styrofoam on the ground outside a storage unit at A-AAA Key Mini Storage on Wednesday morning, they thought little of it.
But then, around 10:30 a.m., they saw that the white substance was melting into a 2-foot puddle outside Unit 296. Mrs. Nemki, who manages the facility on 66th Street N near Largo, called 911.
Dozens of firefighters and hazardous materials workers swarmed the building at 14220 66th St. N. The facility was evacuated and a portion of 66th Street was closed for two hours as a hazardous materials team recovered what turned out to be a substance commonly used to reduce humidity in the storage units.
"We recommend to our tenants that they use it, actually," Mrs. Nemki said Wednesday afternoon. "I had just never seen it in this form before."
It was the second such incident of the morning. Earlier, Clearwater's main post office was shuttered and cleaned after another suspicious substance was found. It, too, turned out to be harmless.
Mrs. Nemki, 57, said she felt a little embarrassed that her call caused such a ruckus. But county emergency officials say those who call 911 after finding something suspicious are doing the right thing.
"If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it just may turn out to be a duck," said David Bilodeau, Pinellas County director of emergency management operations. "It costs us just as much to respond to a situation after the fact, and we won't be nearly as organized."
After several days of federal government warnings that the United States is again ripe for terrorist attacks, people can't be too cautious, Bilodeau says.
"We have been saying again and again since Sept. 11, 'If you're in doubt, call 911,' " he said.
Clearwater's main post office, at 100 S Belcher Road, was closed for about two hours as a hazardous materials team inspected white powder discovered by a postal clerk as he was loading mail at 3 a.m.
"I saw a little piece of paper with a foreign language on it and it was very soft," said Bill Starrs, 62, who has worked at the Clearwater Main Post Office for 16 years. "I found what looked to be a tea bag. When I picked it up, it busted open and I got white powder on my feet, my hands and the floor."
Starrs said he became concerned and drove himself to Mease Countryside Hospital, where tests confirmed the substance was harmless. He returned to the post office around 7 a.m. to finish his shift.
Bilodeau said he would have strongly preferred that Starrs had called 911 and had emergency workers determine if he should have been transported to a hospital.
"One of the worst things you can do is to have a problem and carry it with you, infecting everyone you come in contact with along the way," he said.
Just north of the storage facility, three residents of Twin Palms Mobile Home Court sat near the entrance to their community on their three-wheeled bicycles and watched the emergency scene.
They all agreed that both the storage facility and emergency workers were showing the proper amount of caution.
"Everything that happens makes you think twice anymore," said Sarah O'Rourke, 54. "You just can't take anything for granted these days."
"I think it's a good thing that they not throw caution to the wind," said Sharie Leone, 64. "You never know when it's for real."
-- Julie Church can be reached at (727) 445-4229 or church@sptimes.com.