Bomb squad accident sends tear gas floating across Richland and Hanford. Some felt ill

An unexpected shift in the wind sent a cloud of tear gas floating across part of Richland and the Hanford site on Tuesday afternoon.

The Richland Police Bomb Squad was practicing by disposing expired and unused gas containers at a dedicated training range about 2 p.m., police posted on Wednesday.

They were detonating the canisters when the officers realized the wind had shifted and was blowing the gas off the training range.

“Today we have received reports of citizens who experienced minor respiratory issues which may have been caused by residual vapors in the air,” police said in the Facebook post.

Richland Police Sgt. Drew Florence said they received a handful of calls about it.

Some of the gas drifted toward the Hanford nuclear reservation’s HAMMER training center and some workers there reported irritants, according to Department of Energy contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions.

The training center is on Hanford land adjacent to Richland.

Richland officials said while the effects are irritating, they do no last long and generally are relieved with exposure to fresh air.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. There are no health threats to the public at this time,” they said.

This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Bomb squad accident sends tear gas floating across Richland and Hanford. Some felt ill."