A chemical spill at E.B. Fred Hall Wednesday prompted the Madison Fire Department to evacuate the building for several hours.
""The spill happened at 11:30 [a.m.]. A cabinet was accidently knocked over by a window washer,"" said Chuck Adair, the building manager at Fred Hall.
Laurie Lovedale, public information officer for MFD, said three gallons of hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and percloric acid spilled.
Acid alone can be harmful to the skin but the danger was potential for ""offgassing,"" the fumes that a mixture creates, Lovedale said. She said she felt that this threat was not very high because the building was contained quickly by the MFD.
One person was taken to UW Hospital following the incident as a precautionary measure.
""There was a 51-year old male who was working for campus services. He was actually installing storm windows who was inside the building at the time,"" said Lovedale.
Megan Lloyd, a resident technician who was in the building at the time of the spill, said she noticed something was wrong as she was walking on second floor of the building toward the stairwell.
""I smelled an awful stench, it was putrid. ... It was not very concentrated in the stairwell, like a bad fart ... a stink-bomb,"" she said.
Charles Cowles, a graduate student in microbiology who was also in the building agreed with Lloyd. He said it ""smelled noxious.""
The MFD's Hazardous Incident Team immediately contained the area, Adair said.
Cowles stated that it was ""potentially dangerous but contained fast.""
