North Lebanon Township, PA – The Weis Markets store in North Lebanon Township was evacuated Monday morning after emergency crews were initially dispatched to the location for an unresponsive person.
A First Aid and Safety Patrol ambulance was dispatched to the store, located at 1651 E. Cumberland St., at 11:09 a.m. Monday for an unresponsive person, according to the EMA log.
The call was updated to an active carbon monoxide incident at 11:23 a.m. and Weavertown, South Lebanon Township, Rural Security and Glenn Lebanon fire companies and city fire crews were dispatched to the location.
“I’m not sure what made EMS call us in,” Weavertown Fire Chief Donald Steiner Jr. said. “Although sometimes they carry a carbon monoxide meter on their bags.”
Steiner confirmed two patients, both Weis employees, were transported to an area hospital for evaluation. One of the patients passed out at the store while the other went home sick earlier in the day, but went to the hospital after learning of the situation.
Another six to eight employees were considering going to the hospital for evaluation, Steiner said. No customers were affected.
The store was evacuated at about 11:45 a.m. and was still empty when Steiner left the scene at 2 p.m., he said.
A propane-powered electric generator was the source of the carbon monoxide, according to Steiner. It was not running when firefighters traced the carbon monoxide to it, but it ran at some point and vented its exhaust into the store where the ventilation system circulated the colorless, odorless gas throughout the building.