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Five taken to hospital after chemical spill at cheese factory

Grainne McKinney
BBC News NI
BBC A sign saying Leprino Foods. It is a white sign with the words in black. The logo red and orange logo sits above itBBC

Five people, including two firefighters, were taken to hospital earlier, after a reported chemical spill at an industrial site in County Down on Friday.

The Northern Ireland Fire Service (NIFRS) got at a call at about 22:30 BST on Friday to an incident at Leprino, a cheese factory, in Steps Road near Magheralin.

Seventeen people were assessed at the scene by ambulance services, with five being transferred to hospital.

All have since been discharged and none of their conditions was described as life-threatening.

The outside facade of the factory.
The fire service said the incident was brought under control as all emergency services left the scene at 04:50 BST

Four fire appliances and a Command Support Unit attended the scene along with a number of emergency ambulances, a Hazardous Area Response Team, a doctor and PSNI.

The fire service said the incident was brought under control as all emergency services left the scene at 04:50 BST.

There is no risk to the public, but the fire service has asked that people avoid the area.

A precautionary 100-metre exclusion zone was implemented.

Alan O'Neill, Group Commander with the NIFRS, said firefighters "realised very early" that this was a "significant incident".

He said they subsequently increased their resourcing to four fire appliances and a command support.

"We found out that there had been a chemical mix within the premises that led to quite a significant chemical reaction and that a number of employees from the site had possible impacts from that chemical exposure," Mr O'Neill told BBC News NI.

He said this was "a rare incident in terms of the level of it".

But added that it was something that the emergency response teams were prepared for.

"All of the training and preparation that we've done allowed us to deal with this really quite effectively and thankfully nobody was seriously injured as a result of it."