WASHINGTON – A carbon-monoxide leak in Bethesda has sent more than a dozen people to the hospital this Saturday morning.
About 150 people have been evacuated from the Middlebrooke Apartments, a 10-story brick building on Battery Lane just off of Rockville Pike in Bethesda.
Assistant Chief Scott Graham, of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, says that the Bethesda/Chevy Chase Rescue was called to the building at about 11 a.m. – coincidentally, they were located across the street and were holding an open house – and found a man who had been working on a generator in the building’s basement. He suffered from possible carbon-monoxide poisoning, and fire officials then sounded the alarms and evacuated the building.
“A generator had been running, we don’t know how long, we don’t know why, but it was not ventilating properly, and that worker was overcome,” Graham says.
Graham says 15 people, between the ages 20 to 50 years old, have been treated, and no children were involved. Eight of were taken to local trauma centers with what he described as serious but not life-threatening illnesses, and six were taken to hospitals for evaluation. Graham says all 15 people are expected to recover.
Other occupants of the building have been taken to a community room, where they were briefed by building management.
No firefighters were injured.
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