How an antiquing find triggered a Hazmat response in Bexley

An earlier version of this story misidentified the name of Bexley's Mayor Ben Kessler.

An odd find of an antique first-aid kit triggered a Hazmat response in Bexley, and three other antique resellers around the country called emergency services after finding the same material, a local couple says.

Kate Sanfilippo, a Bexley resident who sells handmade and vintage items as pickleladyfarm and PickleladyVintage on Etsy, picked up a 1933 Boy Scouts Johnson & Johnson first-aid kit Friday from a local estate sale.

One of the items in the kit was a small packet of gauze meant for treating burns that was once wet with picric acid.

Sanfilippo searched picric acid online to make sure the kit wouldn't need any hazardous material labeling when she shipped it to a potential customer. Picric acid, it turns out, can spontaneously combust or explode unless diluted by 30% with water, according to a hazard sheet from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

The packaging containing it had cracked untold years ago.

Sanfilippo went into her husband Tony Sanfilippo's home office to tell him what she found, and he called police, Tony said.

"Like, how could this little bandage be dangerous?" the husband said. "But everything we looked at said, 'Nope, call the bomb squad.'"

That's when everything broke loose, Tony Sanfilippo said. Police blocked off a lane in front of their house for emergency vehicles. A couple of college students residing next door asked what the fuss was about.

Jeff Geitter, a battalion chief for the Columbus Division of Fire, said Columbus firefighters were part of the response. He couldn't immediately speak to the level of risk picric acid poses, but said bomb squad calls for antiques happen several times a year.

"Somebody might find a grenade from the 1940s that they collected, and it's inert, it's not an actual risk, but people see it, and they're like, 'Oh, shoot,'" Geitter said. "At first we're certainly going to be cautious, but then after further evaluation, it rarely turns into anything."

Kate Sanfilippo said she's been an antique collector for about 20 years and has never had a hazardous find before. She has found uranium glass, which has small amounts of the radioactive material for color. You shouldn't eat on those, but they aren't dangerous, she said.

"It's fascinating that there were all these chemicals out there," Tony Sanfilippo said. "I mean, this isn't the only one that we're aware of. Like with film, for example, certain films are highly combustible, like silver nitrate. If you come across that in a collection, it's got to be neutralized as well."

Kate Sanfilippo posted about the incident to Instagram , and she said the post caught the attention of at least three other people in the antiques community who reported they called emergency services to dispose of their own picric acid. Tony posted about the incident on Reddit , where it quickly gained attention on the Columbus page.

The incident also caught the attention of Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler. Kate Sanfilippo said he visited after work to make sure everything was okay, having heard of the emergency response during the work day.

"I said, 'Sorry about all the traffic issues,'" she said.

bagallion@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How an antiquing find triggered a Hazmat response in Bexley