On behalf of Shepard Brothers Inc., we would like to express our deepest gratitude and thanks to the LA County Fire Department, La Habra Police Department and the City of La Habra for their rapid and skillful response on Tuesday. The public servants in our community are beyond reproach, and we are proud to call this community home. We’d also like to thank the local and state agencies that worked together to ensure the incident was swiftly dealt with and everyone was kept safe.
The show of force from all parties reminds us all that our confidence in local public safety staff is well placed. We were thoroughly impressed with the abilities of our local public safety staff and are indebted to them for their brave service. Thank you to all who were involved and to the City of La Habra for their attentiveness to this brief episode.
On Tuesday an isolated reaction occurred during our scheduled production batch of a diluted acid cleaner used in food production cleaning. With abnormally warm ambient temperatures, an unanticipated oxidation reaction occurred which liberated NOx. While this release was not harmful to the public, out of an abundance of caution, employees were evacuated while a small crew stayed behind with local authorities to address the situation. We reentered the facility shortly after the reaction and our equipment was contained, undamaged and our safety protocols worked as designed.
We care deeply about our community, and we apologize for the disturbance on Tuesday. We have taken immediate steps to ensure this will not happen again. We continue to work daily with local country and state agencies to ensure all corrective action measures are taking place. The scene on Tuesday was quickly deemed to be contained and within an hour after arrival, the Fire Department reported the incident under control. We reentered our facility and began cleanup activities. The swiftness of our public safety officials gives us confidence that our community will be safe and prosperous for years to come.
Inquires can be sent directly to us at: regulatory_compliance@shepardbros.com and via our website at shepardbros.com
