n0ssb Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 EMS Evacuates 500 from Denver Hospital Fumes caused EMS and fire officials to evacuate about 500 people from National Jewish Health. The evacuations included about 90 children attending a school for students with respiratory ailments that’s on the hospital campus
spenac Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...aGfiAQD96QL64G0 Fumes force evacuation of 500 from Denver hospital 1 day ago DENVER (AP) — About 500 people have been evacuated from a hospital campus in Denver because of fumes from a mixture of hazardous chemicals. National Jewish Health spokesman William Allstetter says most of those evacuated Monday were staff members. About 35 people were taken to other hospitals for treatment, mostly for nausea and respiratory irritation. The evacuations included about 90 children who were at the hospital. Allstetter says chlorine and hydrochloric acid were spilled or inadvertently mixed during maintenance work at a swimming pool on the hospital campus. Allstetter says three buildings were evacuated, but the main hospital wasn't affected and doctors are still seeing patients. (This version CORRECTS that the pool was undergoing maintenance, not cleaning) Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Eydawn Posted March 11, 2009 Posted March 11, 2009 Epic WIN! I learned to swim in that pool. Wow. Wendy CO EMT-B
JPINFV Posted March 11, 2009 Posted March 11, 2009 Allstetter says chlorine and hydrochloric acid were spilled or inadvertently mixed during maintenance work at a swimming pool on the hospital campus. My dad did that once. He was trying to be lazy and make only one walk around the pool adding acid and chlorine. It didn't take long to realize just how stupid mixing those two chemicals together after the fact, but thankfully this was done outside.
FireMedic65 Posted March 11, 2009 Posted March 11, 2009 A long time ago, some one "accidentally" discharged a dry-chem fire extinguisher at the station. Didn't make much of a mess, but there was still one. Went and got the mop bucket, made up a bleach solution in the bucket that had some "water" in it still. Later during the day, a few of us started to get dizzy and noticed a nice greenish haze coming from the bucket. Went outside to get fresh air, felt better. Right around that time, someone else had showed up and asked what were doing outside. We explained it to him and his reply "you didn't use the blue bucket did you?". Well, long story short, he had used the blue bucket the day before using an ammonia solution. We had called up chemtrec (a poison control place), and inquired with them what would happen. Luckily, no one was harmed from this. Accidents can happen so quickly and easy. Often, VERY dangerous. Congrats to the FD and EMS for a quick and safe evacuation.
Lone Star Posted March 11, 2009 Posted March 11, 2009 A long time ago, some one "accidentally" discharged a dry-chem fire extinguisher at the station. Didn't make much of a mess, but there was still one. Went and got the mop bucket, made up a bleach solution in the bucket that had some "water" in it still. Later during the day, a few of us started to get dizzy and noticed a nice greenish haze coming from the bucket. Went outside to get fresh air, felt better. Right around that time, someone else had showed up and asked what were doing outside. We explained it to him and his reply "you didn't use the blue bucket did you?". Well, long story short, he had used the blue bucket the day before using an ammonia solution. We had called up chemtrec (a poison control place), and inquired with them what would happen. Luckily, no one was harmed from this. Accidents can happen so quickly and easy. Often, VERY dangerous. Congrats to the FD and EMS for a quick and safe evacuation. This is a prime example of nothing more than pure laziness! Had the person using the ammonia solution disposed it properly, there would have been no 'problem' in running more mop water. It's also laziness on the part of the person that mixed up the 'fresh mop water'. Ammonia has a very 'distinct' smell, and should have been picked up on PRIOR to adding bleach! Luckily, no one was seriously injured by a stupid act that should have NEVER happened in the first place!
FireMedic65 Posted March 11, 2009 Posted March 11, 2009 This is a prime example of nothing more than pure laziness! Had the person using the ammonia solution disposed it properly, there would have been no 'problem' in running more mop water. It's also laziness on the part of the person that mixed up the 'fresh mop water'. Ammonia has a very 'distinct' smell, and should have been picked up on PRIOR to adding bleach! Luckily, no one was seriously injured by a stupid act that should have NEVER happened in the first place! In my defense, I was cooking and had a stuffed nose. I can't make excuses for the people who actually mixed up the solutions.
Chief1C Posted March 12, 2009 Posted March 12, 2009 Lazy? Hell, cheap.. Buy some Windex like everyone else.
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