Cleaning chemicals reportedly cause nursing home evacuation and two hospitalizations
Celeste Springer
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) says a portion of a nursing home has been evacuated, and hazmat crews are on scene at 104 Lois Ln.
CSFD says a small wing of the building was evacuated as a precaution. Preliminary readings did not come up with anything, but the hazmat team is inside getting more readings.
The department says that they believe cleaning chemicals may have been improperly mixed and the vapor spread to the air vents.
Two people were sent to the hospital for “minor respiratory illness.” A third person was treated at the scene, CSFD said.
“Just wondered what was going on. And then they said that there was a chemical smell. So everybody was out real quick,” Ernest Beasley has lived at The Gardens Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for years. Beasley said he didn’t smell the gas, and the first time he heard about the gas was when a nurse came in to evacuate him from his room.
“They were just telling us that there was a chemical spill. And that everybody just needed to be out real quick,” Beasley said.
CSFD said they took extra precautions because of the at-risk population living at the center.
“The chlorine gas that’s produced. It’s pretty nasty stuff. If you take enough of it, it can be a real, genuine, medical emergency,” Capt. JJ Halsey with CSFD said.
23 of the 43 residents at the center were evacuated. Tonight, a facility spokesperson says all the residents are safe and everything is back to normal. That spokesperson couldn’t say exactly what the workers were doing when the chemicals mixed, creating the dangerous gas, but added that those chemicals are regularly used to clean rooms at the center.