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Subscribe to RSSAt an elementary school in Atlanta, fire crews found dangerous levels of carbon monoxide thought to have originated from the school's boiler. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
Updated at 10:17 p.m. ET: Forty-three students and six staffers at an Atlanta elementary school were rushed to the hospital early Monday after exposure to carbon monoxide fumes, fire officials told NBC News.
The students and staffers from Finch Elementary in southwest Atlanta exhibited mild and moderate symptoms related to carbon monoxide poisoning. Four more adults arrived at Grady Hospital by school bus, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said.
The school was evacuated as a precaution, NBC affiliate WXIA reported.
The incident was first reported at about 8:35 a.m. ET, according to WXIA. No one was found unconscious at the scene, but the carbon monoxide reading was 1,700 parts per million, which an Atlanta Fire Rescue Department official said was high.
"Once we got inside, we started finding carbon monoxide readings way, way higher than we've ever experienced before, especially around the heating units and hallways, and the entire building turned out to be saturated," Atlanta fire Battalion Chief Todd Edwards told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Edwards also told the Journal-Constitution the school apparently doesn't have carbon monoxide detectors. However, state law does not require schools to have CO detectors, a spokesman for Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner told the newspaper.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that can cause sudden illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion.
Erik S. Lesser / EPA
Students are evacuated from Finch Elementary School by members of the Atlanta Fire Department in Atlanta, Dec. 3, 2012. Almost 50 people were reportedly taken to the hospital for treatment following a carbon monoxide leak.
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Leave a Comment:
"At least 3 of them regained consciousness" What about the other 3? Great reporting NBC!
Just a guess but... They didn't regain consciousness yet at the time of the report? If they died the reporting would have stated that.
It's Georga, the whole state stinks of all kinds of stupidity....Just look at Waycross and the Okefenokee Country Club....they still have klan members.
@JMJ,
Don't compare Waycross to the rest of the state. I've been to Waycross a few times, and they are stuck back in the old days. That goes for most small towns in any state. You do know that there was Democrat US Congressman that is a member of the Klan. He was ousted in 2010!
Thanks Dawgfan, for pointing out the obvious. Every state has idiots. But that's not really the point of the story, is it JMJ? An accident happened, precautions were taken, things are back to normal here in ATL. Some people just love stereotyping when they don't have a clue.
If I didn't read the words "Most Common Symptoms" before they said what they actually are, I'd think they were talking about marriage.. ;-) You know, headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, confusion, weakness, chest pain, ass pain, and broke...Heh heh...
On another note, you're telling me that an Elementary School does "NOT" have a carbon Monoxide Detector?! WTF is that!?
These are children man. WTF. I have a couple plugged right in the wall of my house. This @!$%# is scary man. I mean, you can go to sleep after saying goodnight to everyone (Walton's) and never wake the F'k back up man.
If you ask me, they're as important as a Smoke Detector man and you can "smell" smoke which may give you a head start versus CArbon Monoxide.
C'mon man, spend a few dollars and save your lives. It's about as expensive as two packs of cigarettes.
Creek Dog - CO and smoke detectors are not usually required by code except in areas normally used for sleeping.
Lets refer to the members, Don James, Start Theologus, and by the way the black neighborhoods are still refereed to as the quarters..and Boyton Clark these men are current members and will not allow blacks service them on the Sunday Buffet
Not having Detectors is just asking for problems, our homes are required to have them and they have saved many lives but yet here's a school where all our kids go everyday to learn and there are none. Yeah that makes so much sense its off the wall. Before the levels would get into the dangerous zone all the students and teachers, staff would be inhaling this stuff and for how long? Days, weeks?
Seems like at the very least there should be a few detectors placed in certain areas to protect everyone.
Schools are used as emergency shelters a lot and if this school had been used to for just that purpose this whole story could have had a very different outcome.
I hope everyone will recover fully and the schools (all of them) are required somehow to get the detectors before something worse happens. Its a small price to pay for peace of mind.
If NBC reported it, it's probably false. Also, if all the kids were white, you either wouldn't see the story, or there wouldn't be a picture.Faux News NBC
If nothing else, this incident will be looked at for how the hospital, police, Fire Department and how everyone handled a large scale emergency. Something beneficial for the community. Every time something happens that affects a large number of people, it is reviewed or critiqued by these groups of providers. In hopes of finding ways to improve or cutting down, on any problems which may come up in any areas. Hopefully this incident will actually help many schools across the nation look at taking steps to install these types of detectors as a precaution.
What the hell was the cause? Great job mslsd. something this serious and only 11 lines to the story. Idiots.
Brian-1075075
Brian, It's not required by any code to wear a coat outside when it's 12 degrees but it is smart to do so. Creek Dog's point is that due to the fact that there are children in this building there SHOULD be detectors. It would be logical, practical and good to watch out for the safety of the children and adults alike.
Duke Fawcett
If NBC reported it, it's probably false. Also, if all the kids were white, you either wouldn't see the story, or there wouldn't be a picture.Faux News NBC.
Hey Duke, If the kids were white, this probably wouldn't have happened, because the school would have more money to maintain the furnace, purchase CO detectors, etc.
I thought schools had carbon monoxide alarms as well as fire. Would make sense. Colorless, odorless? That alone screams for standard CO alarms, more than fire, since you can see and smell smoke.
I have both that I purchased. People, they only cost about $20 bones or less.
That is what I was thinking. No carbon monoxide alarms? Crazy...
But they need to be placed low to the ground to be effective. Hanging them on a ceiling is not very effective, as carbon monoxide is heavy and usually hangs near the floor, making a high level alarm much more effective.
Actually CO is lighter than air so you want your detector up near the ceiling. Also, it doesn't just appear out of nowhere. It comes from incomplete combustion. Being as most of the schools in GA use electric heat, CO detectors throughout the whole school would be an unnecessary burden on our already overburdened education budget. Placing a few near potential problem areas (in the kitchen if they use gas burning equipment or hot water heaters) and putting signs up near fresh air intakes telling people not to leave their car running there would be an effective solution for probably less than $100 per school.
On another note, Holy crap 1700 ppm that has to be a typo. CO can start to be fatal at 150 ppm over time. I would think 1700 ppm could kill very quickly.
Beej - Gotta be 170, not 1700. I wonder if we're going to get a report as to the source of the CO. Can't see a kitchen being the problem. Usually to effect this size of group I'd suspect a failed heat exchanger on gas fired furnace. My guess would be the district maintenance guys didn't get their annual inspections done before they needed to fire up the heaters.
Max, I think you are confusing carbon monoxide with carbon dioxide. The latter (Carbon Dioxide) is heavier than air due to the extra molecule it posseses. It has a specific gravity of 1.53. Carbon monoxide is very close in weight to air but since it usually comes from a combustion it normally will rise from being heated. Air is given a specific gravity of one and carbon monoxide has a specific gravity just under that of .9657. So if it is coming from a combustion appliance like a stove or heater then it is warmer and it should rise but once it cools it can mix well with the surrounding atmosphere. Conditions matter as well such as ambient temps and humidity. Hope this helps and can be used to keep you and your loved ones safe. A little expieriment that a science teacher use to show us in class was to take a can of soda and open it and then fill a glass half full of it. He would then wait about 1 minute before striking a match and then slowly lower it into the glass. Low and behold the match would snuff out before it touched the soda.
Here in New Jersey, apartments and homes that are rented to tenants must have smoke detectors as well as carbon monoxide detectors...it's the law!! I would have thought the same would go for schools, churches and other places of gathering. Commercial property should also have the same requirements where a number of people could be present.
Most codes only require CO detectors where people are going to normally be sleeping.
Great article. NOT. It must have been updated as my version has no one losing consciousness but the headline still has people "passed out".
Go to WSBTV dot com. It's the local news station that has better coverage.
I used to be a school bus driver and when we idled in front of the school the fumes from the bus got sucked into the school venting. I wonder if the school buses in the AM idled to long letting the students off and the class room affected was near the heating intake duct work. If it is not an inside problem that would be my guess.
We had to stop idleing the buses in AM and PM due to this problem.
Georgia? Elementary school?
The fumes came from the "Building a Still 101" classroom.
I am sure that the GOP will blame Obama!
but look here! Forget terrestrial life - it's all about spending a buzzizlion dollars so we can "discover" carbon and its various molecules on MARS!
I think America needs to get its priorities straight.
Mars - Big Freeking Whoop, when America's in tatters.
Was Obama's EPA conducting more human experiments on kids? The news media has already reported on Obama's EPA gassing people with lethal doses of diesel exhaust to see how fast they die.
And this school now invests in co2 gas(tell me if I screwed up on the chemical)
Hope that they all recover and they are all back to their own routines.
Hope the Students and the Adults Recover quickly. May God give the Strength and Courage to the Students and the Adults to Recover Quickly. May God Bless the Students and the Adults. We must check the Air conditioning or the Heating system for leakage of any Gas or Chemicals. GOD Bless the Americans. GOD BLESS THE USA.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
I was in Facilities maintenance for over two decades. It comes down to routine maintenance. You can point fingers all day long. The reality is many building and home owners do NOT do necessary maintenance and inspections on their infrastructure. Plumbing, electrical, gas appliances, etc. Anything that requires some form of energy needs to be looked at on a regular interval.
Instead, most people, run their appliances, furnaces, etc until they stop working or worst. It comes down to education. As a society we've stopped being curious. We expect things to run forever or buy stuff so cheap we know it'll break sooner rather than later and are ok with that mindset.
Schools, whether run by the Government or private entities know maintenance is a cost of education. Sadly they think paint and pretty flowers will replace equipment and the man power needed to maintain it. Educators can be pretty ignorant when it come to priorities. Education is more than classrooms and Teachers, much, much, more. Good luck to the children and adults effected by this near fatal event.
Another news story with no useful information. How about telling us what the temperature was this morning in Atlanta? How about telling us how old the school is? How old the heating equipment is? When the heating equipment was last serviced?
It says they think the CO came from the old boiler. That is why the hallways leading to the heater were the most saturated. It says that in the caption under the 1st picture.
For those who dont know, a boiler is a heater, not kitchen equiptment. And yes, any public building that uses a boiler or any form of gas for heat should have CO detectors. Code or not.
I'm am just excited and surprised I didnt log on to find thousands of people debating the dangers of allowing heating systems in our public schools. And waiting for the big presidential speech on heater reforms tomorrow. It is refreshing to see people posting with compassion and intelligent viewpoints where children have been involved and injured in a tragedy instead of using it to further political agendas.
Thanks guys, for reminding me that people can still be human :)