BY MARYSVILLE JOURNAL-TRIBUNE STAFF
Officials are blaming a pool heater for the carbon monoxide (CO) leak that sent more than a dozen individuals to the hospital Saturday, though officials are saying the toxic gas was not localized to the hotel pool area.
Marysville Fire Chief Jay Riley said four of the individuals hospitalized came from the pool area, but the remainder were guests located in other areas of the hotel.
Marysville Police Chief Tony Brooks said the investigation is ongoing but officials believe the hotel’s pool heater malfunctioned, causing the CO leak.
Riley said the pool heater is kept in an area “adjacent to the pool.”
“They did have a CO detector in the pool area, adjacent, but it did not activate, so we have the State Fire Marshal coming out this afternoon to investigate and determine why it did not go off,” Riley said.
He added that the levels in the pool area were “life-threatening so it should have gone off for sure.”
Melanie Ziegler, vice president for community engagement for Memorial Health, said that as a result of the incident, Memorial Hospital received seven patients transported by regional EMS and another four walk-ins, for a total of 11 patients. She said five of the patients were adults and six were children.
The Journal-Tribune has learned that at least some of the children were part of or connected to a youth wrestling team from Teays Valley, staying in the area for a tournament.
Ziegler said seven patients — two in critical condition and five in serious condition — were transported to other hospitals either by ambulance or by helicopter.
Dr. Jason Russell, chief medical officer at Memorial Hospital said patients with serious carbon monoxide exposure require extended monitoring and high-flow oxygen therapy.
He said some patients may require treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Russell said the seven serious exposures were transferred to Ohio State Medical Center or Nationwide Children’s Hospital, “for evaluation for possible hyperbaric therapy.”
Ziegler said four patients were treated and released from Memorial Hospital.
According to Riley, local emergency squads transported at least one patient to Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware.
Officials are reporting different numbers for those transported to local hospitals, those treated at the scene and those who walked into hospitals for treatment.
Officials said they will be working together today to get specific numbers.
Riley said that at 5:26 p.m. Saturday, the Union County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from the Hampton Inn Marysville, 16610 Square Drive, about an unresponsive 2-year-old child. While en route to the scene, more 911 calls began coming in from the scene. Riley said first responders did not know what was happening when they first walked into the hotel.
“We carry CO monitors in our first-in bag and as soon as we went in, they went off,” Riley said.
First responders found the unresponsive child and began to help.
“As we began treating that one, we had other people identify themselves as having symptoms or tell us about someone that had become unresponsive,” Riley said.
He said a total of four victims were in the pool area.
First responders removed the victims from the pool area. Riley said that because it was suspected the victims were suffering from CO poisoning, “we had to do testing throughout the building.”
He explained that as soon as the victims were removed from the area, the pool was evacuated and firefighters backed out of the building to put on breathing apparatus. At the same time, they began to ventilate the building.
“We don’t know what else is there so we protect our people so they can make rescues,” Riley said.
The fire chief said investigators found CO “on all three floors, so that started the evacuation.”
Brooks did note the highest readings were in and around the pool area, though he said the other areas had “life-threatening levels.”
“We found unresponsive individuals on other floors,” Riley said. He noted that five hotel guests, not in the pool area, were identified as “suffering with symptoms of different degrees.” He said at least one was unresponsive.
Riley said the first responders actually went door to door in the hotel. He said that if investigators did not get a response, they used a master key to get into the room.
“Everybody was understanding,” Riley said. “We didn’t have any pushback at all.
Obviously, people were pretty surprised.”
The fire chief said there was a smell of chlorine in the pool area, but “we did testing and that was not the cause.”
Additionally, Brooks said the police and fire departments will be working together this afternoon and through the week to investigate the incident.
“We need to determine: Was it the pool heater? How did it fail? How did this happen?” Brooks said. “We want to go over everything and see where we go from here.”
Riley said there will be a regional debriefing Friday.
“We want to talk about what went well and what didn’t and what we learned,” Riley said.
He said that in hindsight, there are always things responders wish they had done differently.
“Fortunately, from what I have heard, these were small things,” Riley said. We don’t get an event like this very often, but everybody did fantastic.”
He added, “We are just fortunate that the symptoms were recognized so early and that people didn’t die because the levels were so high.”
Hampton Inn Marysville officials were not available for comment.
Riley said the hotel was evacuated fully, but reopened sometime Sunday.