Leakage at Thales in Hengelo

Early this morning around seven o'clock, an employee of Thales discovered a leak in the evaporation system for residual liquids at our printed circuit boards production facility in Hengelo.

This colleague immediately alerted the company security and emergency response team, who in turn called in the fire brigade. The fire brigade was on the spot within minutes.

In line with the security procedure, personnel were gathered in two buildings on the site and personnel not yet present at the facility were asked to stay at home.

Due to the swift action of the emergency response team and the fire brigade, our people and our environment are not exposed to dangerous concentrations and no personal accidents have occurred, however people detected a smell. People were worried and shocked.

As a preventive measure, an NL Alert was sent out with the message that people had to stay indoors, close window and doors and turn off the ventilation.

The fire brigade, in collaboration with Thales employees, insulated the tank in question so that no more gases could escape.

After measurements in the area showed that no increased concentration of hazardous substances was found, the fire service reopened the area to the public.

In the following hour, the residue was removed by a specialized company, after which production at the location was resumed.

Thales took a sample of the residue to find out which substances reacted and to determine the exact cause. A wide range of acids are used in the production of printed circuit boards, including nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. The relevant evaporation system was shut down after this incident.

Job van Harmelen, spokesman for Thales: “We will share the result of our investigation with our environment and the media. I would like to thank the fire brigade, security services and, last but not least, our own colleagues for their quick and adequate action. Fortunately, we regularly practice internally and with the security region on these types of scenarios that you hope will never occur. The safety of our environment, neighbors and colleagues always has our highest priority. ”

Questions:
Job van Harmelen - 0610088211
job.vanharmelen@nl.thalesgroup.com