Blood tests of a construction worker who collapsed Wednesday outside a Yale University building led emergency crews to find potentially fatal levels of carbon monoxide inside.
Another 13 people were hospitalized, but the discovery may have prevented a greater catastrophe, officials said.
“There was a disaster averted here,” said Rick Fontana, New Haven’s director of emergency operations. “You can have more disease or more death if this goes on for a longer period of time.”
Emergency crews initially thought they were responding to a “routine medical call” Wednesday morning when they took the collapsed man to the hospital, Fontana said.
However, an hour and a half later, the hospital informed them that the worker had very high levels of carbon monoxide in his bloodstream.
Crews later returned to the scene and found 13 people in the building with high carbon monoxide levels and complaining of headaches.
New Haven emergency responders work outside the building where 14 people fell ill from carbon monoxide poisoning on Jan. 17, 2024. AP The university-owned building is a few blocks from Yale’s New Haven campus. WFSB 3
It was later determined that construction workers had used propane fuel saws to cut concrete inside the structure.
Although they released it, Fontana said smoke did not come out of the building.
Of the 14 people hospitalized, nine were construction workers and five were members of the Yale Department of Safety, which is located at the same facility, said Mayor’s spokesman Justin Elicker.
The man who was found lying outside the building, which is located a few blocks from Yale’s New Haven campus, was taken to the hyperbaric chamber of Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, New York City, where he is in critical condition, Fontana said.
It was determined that construction workers had used a propane-fueled chainsaw to cut concrete inside the structure. WFSB 3 Of the 14 people hospitalized, nine were construction workers and five were members of the Yale Department of Safety, located at the same facility. AP
He said another worker was also in a “pretty serious condition” but was not sure where he was taken.
“That carbon monoxide, it’s not like you can smell it or see it or taste it,” he said. “Everyone thought that it had been released properly until we were informed about this group of people.”
Fontana said a typical home carbon monoxide detector sounds the alarm when it detects 35 parts per million. In this case, there are 350 parts per million, or 10 times the permitted level.
Inhaling carbon monoxide smoke prevents the body from using oxygen properly and can harm organs, including the heart and brain.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.
The man who was found lying outside the building, which is located a few blocks from Yale’s New Haven campus, was taken to the Jacobi Medical Center hyperbaric chamber in the Bronx, New York City in critical condition. AP Inhaling carbon monoxide smoke prevents the body from using oxygen properly and can harm organs, including the heart and brain. WFSB 3
A Yale spokesperson said in an email that it took about half an hour for carbon monoxide levels in the building to reach safe levels.
Yale first responders also checked the adjacent area but did not detect any gas.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
