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Hazmat crews uncover massive amount of chemicals in abandoned South Sacramento home

Hazmat crews uncover massive amount of chemicals in abandoned South Sacramento home
Hazmat crews uncover massive amount of chemicals in abandoned South Sacramento home 02:54

SACRAMENTO - It was quite a scene in South Sacramento Tuesday afternoon as hazmat crews in full gear sifted through a home off 19th Street near Matson Drive.  The home sat boarded up, fenced off and marked "dangerous."

"Yeah they've been here for two days already, they were here all day yesterday, all last night," said Terron Williams.

Williams has a front-row seat from across the street. Crews discovered dozens of containers of chemicals that were enough to call out the city's special operations division.

"There are all sorts of chemicals, like I said, small quantities," said Captain Andrew Ramos with Sacramento's Special Operations Division.

The home had been abandoned since the homeowner passed away over the summer.

"Me and my wife, we were both really sad," said Jaymar Williams.

Neighbors like Jaymar were first sad to see their longtime neighbor go and are now sad to see his home as a hazmat scene. It started with people calling 911 when they saw squatters and thieves breaking into it.

"He's owned this house since it was built. So then for someone to take over, it was heartbreaking," said Jaymar.

"They were actually going in there and taking his stuff," said Terron.

Those 911 calls lead to crews discovering the chemicals and it will take days for them to test every container in order to safely dispose of them.

"They're nothing that we should be afraid of -- they're just small quantities and we want to make sure that the labeling that's on the different containers match what is actually inside," said Capt. Ramos.

It's a tedious process, but one neighbors welcome for everyone's safety.

"Oh yeah, absolutely. Just want to make sure there's nothing flammable in there, something can explode, something could leak out get everybody sick, so I'm just happy that they're in there and they're going over everything with a fine-toothed comb," said Terron.

As of Tuesday evening, the Sacramento City Fire Department confirmed to CBS13 that crews had tested 25 chemicals that matched the labels, but those were only the chemicals in the lab.  Crews still have to go through the garage which is twice the size of the lab and stored a lot more containers.

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