Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
School's 'hazmat' incident puzzling
Eleven children and two adults at Fort Belvoir Elementary School were hospitalized Sept. 26 due to what the school is calling a "hazmat incident."Complaints by students playing kickball outdoors at the school around 2:30 that afternoon prompted the school to be put into "shelter-in-place" by the U.S. Army at 3:30 p.m.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), defines the term "shelter-in-place" as taking immediate shelter where you are, and/or sealing a room if chemical or radiological contaminants are suspected to have been released into the environment.
Belvoir spokesman Donald N. Carr said that those hospitalized with "a minor rash, itching and coughing" were evaluated at DeWitt Army Community Hospital and released. The school's Web site stated that those with the symptoms were transported to DeWitt at 4:55 p.m. on Friday.
The school normally lets out at 4 p.m., but all students and faculty were held until at least 5:45 p.m.
“Preventive medicine personnel from both DeWitt and the county school system will continue to investigate possible causes of this event, but we are very glad to report that all the children have been treated and released and reunited with their families,” said DeWitt Army Community Hospital Chief Medical Officer Lt. Col. Mark Harris.
Based on the investigation on Friday and the re-evaluation of the school on Sunday by the Fairfax County HazMat team, the cause of the itchy skin has not yet been determined.
Chemical, biological, radiological contaminants and explosive materials were ruled out as the cause, according to Fairfax County Public Schools.
"The involved classrooms, clinic, and library were given extra cleaning on Friday and again on Sunday, before school reopened Monday morning," FCPS said in a press release.
Carr said Friday that no "experiments" are performed at Fort Belvoir, but said on Friday that he did not know if anything from the base could have been responsible for the incident.
You must be logged in to post a comment.