PORTALES, N.M. — A whistle blower tried to warn officials in New Mexico about a warehouse packed with hand sanitizer months before it caught fire two weeks ago.
The same man who stored hand sanitizer in a Gorham warehouse that caught fire last summer also had a deal to store the hand sanitizer in southeast New Mexico. His name is Eduard Zaydman.
The tipster
The tipster, who asked for anonymity, lives just outside Gorham and saw smoke from the warehouse fire on August 30, 2025. She has family and friends who fought that blaze. When she discovered Zaydman had a similar storage deal in New Mexico, she felt compelled to act.
On Sept. 2, 2025, she sent an anonymous email to a TV station in Amarillo, Texas, the closest television market to the warehouse in Portales, NM. It warned it is worth “”notifying city officials!”
News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean spoke with the whistle blower about her decision to warn authorities.
“What was inside you that said I got to tell them about it?” Brean asked.
“I think it goes back to what I do for work. I’m in a position where you do have to speak up and you do have to say something,” the whistle blower said.
“It’s going to go”
The Gorham Planning Board knew the warehouse in Gorham posed a danger three months before the fire. A video of its June 2025 meeting documented board chair Thomas Harvey’s warning.
“There is enough quantity (of hand sanitizer) in that building that once it starts to go, it’s going to go,” Harvey said at the monthly meeting.
The fire in New Mexico
Two weeks ago, the warehouse with sanitizer in New Mexico caught fire. Timothy J. Cathey, Portales fire chief, said he received an anonymous tip about what was inside.
“I received a 3rd party anonymous tip saying there was a lot of hand sanitizer being stored there,” Cathey said.
The chief could not confirm if the tip came from the whistle blower. However, his department pre-planned for the danger and called in extra help.
“Did the tip help?” Brean asked the chief.
“I mean ultimately knowing that there’s a potential danger and being able to pre-plan for that is vital,” Cathey said.
The Gorham fire took eight hours to get under control. The New Mexico fire was controlled in three hours.
“Maybe your warning stopped the fire from being worse than it was,” Brean said.
“That’s exactly what I intended,” the whistle blower said. “And I think people don’t realize the impact they can have by speaking up. And I’m thankful that it did some good.”
The tipster emailed the warning on Sept. 2. Chief Cathey said his tip was passed on by his mayor’s office the same month. The fires in Gorham and New Mexico remain under investigation.
Zaydman told News10NBC in an email that 100-degree temperatures in New Mexico caused the hand sanitizer to spontaneously combust.
News10NBC Investigates: ‘I think people don’t realize the impact they can have’; Whistle blower speaks out after warning of hand sanitizer fire danger WHEC.com.
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