Hazelton, PA – Wednesday and Thursday, 121 workers in a Humboldt Industrial Park plant went to the hospital after carbon monoxide was found in the plant Wednesday afternoon.
Hazle Twp. Fire Chief Scott Kostician said the fire company was called to Tech Packaging at 5:16 p.m. Wednesday for a report of carbon monoxide.
He said employees had been sent home at 3:30 p.m. and that there were low readings of carbon monoxide when firefighters arrived.
The plant has a natural gas-fired heating, ventilating and air conditioning system and about 20 propane-powered forklifts, Kostician said.
The plant remained closed Thursday as vendors who deal with the plant’s utilities were called in to investigate the source of the carbon monoxide, Kostician said.
Joe Hull, R.N., manager of the emergency department at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton, said 54 workers were seen Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m., and another 67 were seen Thursday.
“We assessed them for exposure to carbon monoxide,” Hull said. “They definitely had been exposed to carbon monoxide, but nothing serious. They were treated and discharged. To see that many people at one time, it took everybody working together as a team.”
A call to the plant Friday was not returned.