WACO (October 22, 2009)—The Waco Fire Department’s HAZMAT team responded to a mercury spill Thursday afternoon in front of the new science building on the McLennan Community College campus.

An area in front of the building was taped off, but no evacuations were ordered.

A crew will remain on standby until an environmental cleanup team hired by the school arrives to contain and remove the mercury.

An MCC lab technician was using a cart to move about 10 pounds of mercury into the new building when the container spilled just outside the door at around 2 p.m. Thursday.

Waco Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Kerwin said because the temperature is relatively cool and the mercury is so heavy, there’s no concern about vapors.

Mercury vaporizes at 70 degrees, officials said.

The temperature on campus when firefighters arrived was 65.

It’s the team’s second response to a campus chemical spill in a little more than a week.

On Oct. 13, Baylor University’s three-story science building was evacuated after a graduate student spilled a small quantity of isobutyl cyanide, which is toxic and potentially dangerous if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

The female graduate student was removing vials of the chemical from a packing case when one of the vials fell to the floor.

The student, whose name wasn’t released, placed the vial under a containment hood.

Only about 1 milliliter of the substance was spilled, a university spokeswoman said.

That’s less than a teaspoonful, but enough to be dangerous.