Thursday, April 15, 2010

Jenny Reed Elementary Incident

Incident Date: April 15, 2010
Issuing Officer: Joe Meinecke
Incident Location: Jenny Reed Elementary School 1803 S. 38th Street
Incident Type: Mass Medical Incident

Narrative: At 10:30 a.m. Thursday April 15, 2010, 4 Engines, 2 Ladders, 2 Medic Units, several Rural Metro Units and Command Staff responded to the report of a noxious order or possible natural gas leak at Jenny Reed Elementary School.

Initially, a single engine company was dispatched (@10:01 a.m.) to investigate an "odor" problem at the school. The first arriving company could not identify any apparent natural gas leaks, but did find a number of students and staff complaining of feeling sick. The incident was quickly upgraded to a mass medical incident - the school was evacuated, a triage process was established that identified 25 patients, medical evaluations were given and 11 of those patients were transported to local area hospitals.

The cause of the incident remains undetermined. Air monitors were used to search the building for potential harmful conditions but revealed no threats and the natural gas company also conducted a thorough examination of their equipment and found no gas leak.

The building was re-evacuated later in the afternoon as a precautionary measure and still no toxic gases or conditions were identified.