By Steve Gehrke And Lindsay Whitehurst
Salt Lake Tribune
OGDEN, Utah — Forty-four people were hospitalized after being exposed to lethal levels of carbon monoxide at a metal-sink manufacturing plant in Ogden on Thursday, firefighters said.
The air in Elkay West Co. contained double to triple the lethal level of the poisonous gas, said deputy Ogden Fire Chief Chad Tucker.
“We’ve never seen a [carbon monoxide] incident this bad,” he said. The plant does not have carbon monoxide monitors, which are not required in Ogden, said plant manager Lincoln Harayama.
All 80 workers were evacuated at about 11 a.m. when employees reported headaches and nausea in the break room of the plant, located at 551 Depot Drive, Harayama said.
Thirty-three workers were transported by ambulance and 14 were taken to hospitals in Utah Transit Authority buses.
The cause of the carbon monoxide leak is still under investigation, but firefighters are checking metal-heating machines that can release the gas if the venting system become clogged, in addition to gas heating vents, Tucker said.
The air in the plant contained 260 to 300 parts of carbon monoxide per million. Anything over 100 parts per million can be lethal. Anything over 35 parts per million is cause for concern, Tucker said.
Ogden Regional Medical Center reported taking 11 employees, McKay-Dee Hospital reported taking 15 employees, two went to LDS Hospital, and about six went to Intermountain Medical Center, according to spokesmen for those hospitals. Davis Hospital also reported taking employees, but they did not immediately have a total.
The two people taken to LDS Hospital are being treated in hyperbaric chambers to rid their blood of carbon monoxide, according to Ogden Deputy Fire Chief Chad Tucker.