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Connecticut –
Fourteen people in New Haven were hospitalized Wednesday for carbon monoxide poisoning.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said a person was found unconscious on the street in the area of 73 Howe St. They were taken to a local hospital, where medical personnel determined they were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Officials went to the scene and learned that the high levels of carbon monoxide were coming from a construction site at a Yale-owned building where crews were sawing a concrete floor using a propane saw. Fire officials said the building had inadequate ventilation for the tools used.
“Typically, when you use such equipment, you’ll have carbon monoxide monitoring and good ventilation,” Elicker said. “There was no carbon monoxide monitoring going on on-site.”
New Haven Fire Battalion Chief Greg Carroll said, “Some of our meters went into overload” when firefighters first arrived.
“It was about 350-400 parts per million, which are dangerous levels, so we quickly went through the building and evacuated it,” Carroll said.
Elicker said ten construction workers and four employees at Yale’s campus security office next door had been taken to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning.
The person who was found unconscious was transferred to a hospital in New York for further treatment and is in critical condition. The other 13 are said to be in stable condition.
According to a construction official, carbon monoxide levels in the area have decreased.
In a statement to News 8, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had opened an inspection of Alberca Construction Company LLC following the hospitalizations.
“During the inspection, OSHA will gather whatever information is necessary to determine what happened and if the employer is in compliance with OSHA standards,” the spokesperson said. “If the inspection identifies violations, OSHA could issue citations and propose penalties for the employer.”
OSHA has up to six months to complete the inspection.
New Haven Fire Chief John Alston said the incident reminds companies and residents to use carbon monoxide detectors.
“As we hit this cold snap, I know the mayor has been having our cold emergency meetings just to advise people to be very careful when you’re sealing up your houses and turning on these heating systems to make sure you have a CO detector.”
The city has issued a work stoppage order for the construction site as officials continue investigating.
14 people in New Haven hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning (wtnh.com)
