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By MICHAEL WELLS
The Tampa Tribune
RIVERVIEW - An anhydrous ammonia leak Friday morning in the Bell Shoals Road and Bloomingdale Avenue area alarmed residents and prompted five schools to keep students indoors and shut off air-conditioning units for nearly four hours.
Investigators could not determine the cause of the leak, said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman Ray Yeakley.
“We don’t know if there was an actual leak, and we don’t know what caused this smell,†he said.
Yeakley said an ammonia line runs north of the affected location that is maintained by Tampa Pipe Co., but that the carrier reported no drop in pressure problems.
Some area farmers use ammonia in their fertilizer, and even though ammonia is lighter than air, a temperature inversion could have held the gas down close to the ground for a while and the smell caused alarm, Yeakley said.
The first indication of a problem came at 8:15 a.m., when a caller reported a strong smell of ammonia in the area, Yeakley said.
As a precaution, five local schools were placed on lock-down. They were: Collins, Sessums, and Summerfield elementary schools and Riverview High School and Rodgers Middle School.
The area being investigated stretched from Big Bend Road north to McMullen, East to Bell Shoals and West to I-75. Residents were advised to move all people and pets indoors, to close and seal all windows and doors and to turn off air conditioning.
Hazardous materials detection equipment indicated the area was clear at about 12:30 pm, officials said.
Schools resumed normal activities and turned air-conditioning units back on but continued keeping students indoors because of the smell, a district spokeswoman said.
In response to David Brown in Tampa,
The area in question has not been residential until recently. It is the responsibility of the developers and home buyers to know what is nearby. Further, it is not yet known if this is a leak from an underground pipe.
Since various industries require ammonia, would you prefer the gas be carried in pressurized trucks?
I’ll take the underground pipes thank you very much.
Since the source has not been identified, my first guess is a meth lab, but who knows?
my question not comment is who allowed a ammonia line to be layed under ground anyways knowing that a leak could be very deadly,,anhydrous ammonia can kill easily when inhaled,,citizens living in areas where these lines are buried should be concerned
Just received a phone call at 3:00 p.m. about the leak. Your article says it was cleared at 9:48 a.m. Is it O.K. at this point to go outside and put the air conditioning back on? There has been nothing on the news. Please let me know!
We received a call at 12:10 PM today from Hillsborough Emergency Mgmt. to stay in-side due to the ammonia leak. The Elementary school right next to us still has a firetruck outside with LOCKDOWN sign on it and the trucks were still blocking the road from Symmes RD to Balm Riverview RD. Is this emergency over????? Why isn’t there anything on the TV about it??? Can we come out of our home yet???… it is getting hot in here since we were told to turn off the AC. Your article says it was OK at 9:49AM????
I am at school at Riverview High School and we were told we are still on a lockdown and theres an odor in the air and we just now left to go to our next class
Has the all clear been given for the Brandon area?? Can you please give us some updates on this...besides the weather and other stuff??
McMullen Rd runs from Balm Riverview Rd. to McMullen Lp N of Boyette. The Balm Riverview-McMullen intersection is between Rhodine Rd and Boyette Rd. The “theft” leak was actually 3+ years ago, and that was on Bloomingdale Ave and Bell Shoals area. Windspeed and direction will dictate how soon it clears.
Are you sure that they have the street listed right? They have it listed as Bloomingdale Ave and Bell Shoals. However, all the schools that are on lockdown are on the Riverview side of town which is west. I think it might have been Boyette and Bell Shoals. If it was Bloomingdale on the Valrico side of town then why aren’t schools over there closed. Please let me know for sure, my daughter goes to Riverview Elem. Thank you Erin Justice
Do you have any idea how long this will take to clear??
I wish we could get a more updated report on what is going on. I have a son at Collins, which is under lockdown, plus I have 2 smaller kids at home. I would like more updates.
Can you or should you get your kids from school or will this be over soon. How long will it take to determine how safe the area is? 
Where is McMullen? On the map it’s parallel to I-75 & Bell Shoals....
Isnt this the same area that the attempted theft of anhydrous ammonia occoured last year??
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Posted by courtney pages, riverveiw on 09/29 at 10:17 PM
hi, im courtney i go to rodgers, is the ammonia bad enough to cause perment damage? exactly what is ammonia?