Carbon Monoxide Gas Sickens Dispatchers

A Lubbock (Tex.) police dispatcher was hospitalized and several others were sickened when lethal carbon monoxide gas from the building’s boiler leaked into the comm center on Sunday. The comm center was evacuated and dispatching operations were transferred to the fire department’s comm center until the boiler problem was fixed. The dispatchers recovered, but fire officials are using the incident to remind city residents of the dangers of carbon monoxide. Police officials said a single dispatcher fell ill about noon, complaining of the typical symptoms of CO—headache, nausea and fatigue. About 90 minutes later several other dispatchers also felt ill, and the fire department responded to find high levels of CO inside the comm center. The evacuation and transfer of dispatching tasks was routine, officials said. The police department said they’ve now installed carbon monoxide detectors within the comm center. Update: Coincidentally, the IAFC kicked off a CO awareness program in early December, including a Web site.