What was thought to be remnants of a drug lab inside a Lynnwood storage locker Friday, Jan. 4, turned out to be chemicals used for making fireworks.
Hazardous materials crews from all over Snohomish County were called around 1 p.m. to the storage locker in the 5200 block of 180th Street Southwest after a worker for a junk disposal company found the chemicals in a drawer, Lynnwood Fire Department spokeswoman Marybeth O’Leary said.
The worker called 911 because the chemical caused smoke or fumes when some spilled onto the floor, O’Leary said. Some chemical spilled onto the worker but did not cause injury, she said.
Workers from the state Department of Ecology worked through the afternoon to clean out the abandoned storage locker.
“The substance in there was unknown, and it looked like there were quite a few containers of it, maybe 20 (8-ounce) containers,” O’Leary said.
The chemicals are used to put the colors into fireworks. None of the chemicals were explosive, O’Leary said.
Investigators suspected early on that the locker had once been a drug lab. No drugs were found, but members of the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force found some chemicals that could be used in producing drugs, O’Leary said.
Lynnwood Police Department spokeswoman Shannon Sessions said police were out at the storage locker mainly to provide traffic control.
Scott Pesznecker writes for the Herald of Everett.
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