THE Nowra Olympic Pool took on the appearance of a giant iced cake on Sunday morning after vandals emptied a fire extinguisher into it, risking serious injury including chemical burns.
Someone scaled two fences on Saturday night to get to the pool’s chemical area, where many hazardous materials were stored, according to Shoalhaven City Council’s aquatics manager Kevin Norwood.
“They were at extreme risk of chemical burns,” Mr Norwood said.
A carbon dioxide fire extinguisher was taken, and its powdery contents discharged into the pool, creating a 100 millimetre coating across the pool that looked like powdery icing.
As a result the pool had to be closed on Sunday, with many people turned away.
“It was a real shame we had to close on Sunday, which was one of the nicest days of the summer and we had to turn people away,” Mr Norwood said.
“But there’s no way we could have allowed people into the pool, in case they ingested any of the foam.”
While the foam was not hazardous, it took a day to remove.
Mr Norwood said pool staff were helped by a Nowra Fire Brigade crew which used a small hazmat boom to help contain and remove the foam.
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