Vials’ owner
was expert in
chemical weaponry

The deceased owner of the Wilhelmina Rise home where glass vials containing a suspicious liquid were found was the commanding officer of the Chemical Warfare Depot at Schofield Barracks in 1942.

Ernest Thomas was a chemical engineer and a retired Army colonel who had served during World War II with the 29th Chemical Decontamination Company at Schofield Barracks, as well as the Chemical Warfare Section of the 35th Infantry Division, according to a memoir that he wrote.

On Tuesday evening, state officials ordered the evacuation of the Thomas home at 1611-A Paula Drive and two other, nearby homes after they were alerted to about 100 glass vials containing an unknown liquid under the house.

Army and Hawaii National Guard experts in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons planned to remove the glass vials this morning and take them to an undisclosed Army base on Oahu, where experts from the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland will determine what the liquid is and what to do with it. The Army decided to remove the vials today rather than wait for the Maryland experts and their equipment so that the occupants can return to their three homes.

Maj. Gen. Bob Lee, state adjutant general, who heads Hawaii's National Guard, said he has been told that the vials might contain material used to train World War II troops on the hazards of a gas attack.

If the vials are found to contain substances produced by the military, the Army will dispose of them, a Fort Shafter spokeswoman added.

The vials are now outside the house under a gray rubbish can, used by the city for garbage pickups.

Kelly McArthur, who cared for Thomas and his wife, said she found a green and red cardboard Christmas box with about 100 sealed glass vials containing an unknown liquid a few months after Thomas died in February 2004. McArthur said that during the next months she called various companies and agencies and was even told by one agency to wrap it in newspaper and dispose of it in the garbage.

However, she recently read something in the newspaper about contacting the city to dispose of hazardous materials. When she called the city, she was advised to contact the state Department of Health.

She brought a vial to the Health Department on Monday, and department officials and emergency officials responded Tuesday night and evacuated the homes.

Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said yesterday that the vial has since been transferred to a chemical laboratory for safekeeping. It has not been opened, she said.

In preparation for the Health Department, McArthur moved the box outside the fence in the driveway and placed it in a new cat litter box with a lid.

McArthur has lived alone at the house since the November death of Thomas' wife, Harriett Thomas, who had been a food editor for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

McArthur, who is buying the house, said the couple married in 1948 and moved there in 1950 but also spent time at a Waikiki home.

McArthur described Ernest Thomas as a genius who was also wonderful, humorous, outspoken and a man of integrity.

"I wouldn't think he would have anything dangerous under his house," she said.

Thomas, who was 86 when he died, left memoirs that detailed his life in the National Guard and the Army.

Thomas wrote he was designated to handle the problem calls involving supplies and equipment, and had the authority to approve issues.

Thomas wrote that many tons of various toxic chemical agents were stored at the Chemical Warfare Depot just below Kolekole Pass, including "mustard gas, phosgene, nitrogen mustard, chloropicrin and others."

McArthur said she has been exposed to the chemical inside the vials but has not felt any ill effects. She plans to see her doctor as advised by the Health Department.

"I'm sure that there was something," she said. "Something leaked in the wooden box. It was green when I pulled it out. My finger felt like dry ice."

She said that health officials informed her that if the chemical was mustard gas, she would have suffered ill effects right away.

Thomas was also chief chemical engineer at Pacific Chemical and Fertilizer Co.