A spilled bottle of mercury brought police and firefighters to a Publix parking lot on Northwest 13th Street Tuesday night.
A 20-by-20-foot area around the bottle was roped off with red tape wound around shopping carts to keep people from getting too close before the county's Environmental Protection Department could arrive to clean it up.
The spilled mercury, which came from a dark-colored, quart-size bottle with a handwritten label, was discovered by Mary MacDonald, an administration coordinator for Publix.
"It was there when I came to put away my groceries," MacDonald said.
MacDonald said she accidentally touched the mercury before she realized what it was.
"I did wash my hands," she said. "I'm not scared."
Pat Hartley, a firefighter with Gainesville Fire Rescue's hazardous materials crew, said it was uncertain where the bottle had come from and that the situation was unusual.
It appeared to have fallen out of someone's car and been run over, Hartley said.
The Fire Rescue crew had the materials to clean up mercury, he said, but not in such large quantities.
"It's enough we don't want to use what we have," Hartley said. "It would take up all we have."
Mercury vapors can be dangerous, Hartley said, but with low winds, firefighters were not worried about the small crowd of bystanders that gathered around the scene.
Lt. Todd Ellis of the Fire Rescue said as long as the spill was roped off, it shouldn't pose a threat.
"It's not going to jump off the ground and get on you," Ellis said.
