Randolph, Minn.-As many as 55 students were taken to area hospitals following the release of approximately 200 gallons of anhydrous ammonia during a transfer from a semi-truck carrying 8,000 gallons to a storage tank at a local farm input business here on Wednesday, Dec. 8. According to Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows, almost all of the residents of this small rural community were evacuated as the cloud traveled in a southwesterly direction into the downtown area of Randolph. The Randolph Fire Department, which responded along with several others in the area, ordered the downtown area, along with the school, evacuated. Bellows said most of the students who were transported were checked over and released at four different hospitals, but he couldn’t say if the two or three who were admitted were still hospitalized. Bellows didn’t know the exact cause of the release, but said personnel at the River Country Co-op were able to stop the release fairly quickly and no one there experienced any problems. River Country Co-op Manager Bob Rahman told the local press the company was receiving a load of ammonia when the wrong valve opened during repairs. “We shut down the releases as fast as it was noticed,” he said. Dakota County Emergency Preparedness Coordinator David Gisch says about 400 residents of Randolph were sent to the Hampton fire station about eight miles away. Students at the city’s school complex were evacuated to St. Mark’s church outside the city limits. School officials said the students were initially placed into a lockdown when they were notified of the leak. After about five minutes, they were asked to evacuate. The school was closed for evaluation the rest of the day and opened two hours late the next morning.
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