CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Sean Cripps of the National Guard's 92nd Civil Support Team got ready yesterday to remove vials containing an unknown, possibly dangerous substance from a house on Paula Drive.

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Resident too wary
to dump vials
in trash, as told

Kelly McArthur just couldn't get comfortable with the idea of disposing of 100 vials of unidentified liquid in the regular trash.

Safe disposal Whom do you call if you need to dispose of a hazardous substance? 1) If there is concern about someone's immediate safety, call 911 and explain the situation. If appropriate, a hazardous-materials team will be sent. 2) Call the city's Household Hazardous Waste Hotline at 692-5411 during business hours, or see the city's waste disposal Web site at www.opala.org. The city provides extensive information on how to safely dispose of small amounts of common household chemicals and hazardous wastes. 3) Call the state Health Department's Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office at 586-4249.

"When I called bulk pickup about it, they said wrap it in paper and box it up and put it in my garbage," McArthur said of the mystery substance that she found underneath the Wilhelmina Rise home of Ernest Thomas, a former Army chemical warfare officer.

But "I was visualizing the guy putting it in the truck and the truck blowing up," McArthur said.

So McArthur kept searching for the right way to get rid of something that she thought could potentially be hazardous, but wasn't sure.

Meanwhile, she kept the cardboard box of vials at the home where she had been a caretaker for Thomas, who died in 2003, and his wife, Harriett, who died in November. McArthur discovered the vials after Ernest Thomas' death.

While McArthur was concerned that the liquid in the vials might be harmful, she also had a feeling that Thomas would not have left something unsafe underneath his house.

"He was a real responsible person," she said of the former chemical engineer and colonel.

As she watched firefighters and National Guard soldiers converge on her Paula Drive home yesterday morning, McArthur told reporters she doubts that Thomas would have kept anything dangerous in the house.

"He loved that house," said McArthur, who plans to purchase it. "He would have never done anything to blow it up.

Kelly McArthur: The caretaker for an Army officer says it is unlikely he'd store a hazard

"Wouldn't it be something if it turned out to be a household agent?"

Last week, McArthur called the city's Household Hazardous Waste program, which helps Oahu residents dispose of small amounts of poisons, herbicides and paint products that might be used around a typical home, said Suzanne Jones, the city's recycling coordinator.

"It's not designed to handle nontypical hazardous chemicals," such as the unidentified liquid in the vials at McArthur's home, Jones said. However, the staff was able to refer her to the state Health Department's Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office.

An investigator there determined that because of Thomas' past jobs, the stuff in the vials might be related to chemical warfare and merited special treatment, said Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo.

Jones noted the case of the mystery vials points to a cardinal rule of hazardous substances: "Never take any kind of chemical and put them in another container. You should always leave them in the labeled container that they came in."

It is a lot easier to deal with a hazardous substance if you know what it is, Jones said.