About 200 gallons of sulfuric acid leaked from a pipe that broke outside the entrance of the Wynn Las Vegas on the Strip. Clark County, Nev. spokeswoman Stacey Welling told the Las Vegas Sun the accidental spill was caused by a contractor filling the pipe with the chemical right outside the resort. The fire department responded at about 8 a.m. PT, and the spill was contained within about an hour.
Movement along the Strip, jammed with traffic on normal days, was gridlocked in the area near the Las Vegas Convention Center and other venues, including the Venetian Hotel, where the Consumer Electronics Show is being held. More than 120,000 are attending the show, and many were trying to make their way via buses, taxis and cars to the convention center.
Both directions of traffic along the Strip in the already-congested area were closed as hazardous material crews worked to neutralize the acid.
The acid is not flammable and there is "minimal risk" of theliquid and fumes spreading because of Las Vegas' chilly temperatures, in the 40s as of Thursday morning, a police spokesman officer told The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
One man who slipped and fell in the liquid was taken to a local hospital and is reported to be in stable condition.
Updated: Roads near the entrance of the hotel and on the Strip all re-opened around noon. Meanwhile, "massive crowds" arriving at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas for CES "helped set a record Wednesday for the number of taxis loaded" at the airport, The Las Vegas Sun reports. "Airport officials said 14,495 taxis were loaded at the airport’s two terminals Wednesday ... The new record is 4 percent more cabs loaded than the previous 24-hour record of 13,927, which was set on Jan. 4, 2006, also a day that coincided with CES."
