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Firefighters and a hazardous materials response team set up a temporary
decontamination unit where they sprayed employees and shoppers
yesterday outside the Wal-Mart in Danvers. (Justine Hunt/ Globe Staff)
Scores evacuated as fumes close store
By Michael Levenson and Yuxing Zheng, Globe Staff and Globe
Correspondent | July 2, 2006
DANVERS -- More than 60 people were taken to area hospitals yesterday,
complaining of nausea, burning eyes, and shortness of breath after
being exposed to an unknown, apparently airborne irritant at a Wal-Mart
in Danvers, authorities said.
The emergency began with a 9 11 call at about 2:30 p.m. from someone at
the store who complained about an unknown gas wafting through the air,
fire officials said. Firefighters and hazardous materials teams
responded, setting up a yellow tent where they sprayed exiting
employees and shoppers with decontaminants.
Wal-Mart officials shut the store and evacuated everyone inside. The
victims were taken to several hospitals in the area; none of their
injuries were considered life threatening, authorities said.
Sergeant Carole Germano of the Danvers Fire Department said that the
store's ventilation system was working at the time of the 9 11 call and
that no flammable gases were detected inside the Wal-Mart. Germano said
investigators were not sure what had afflicted people inside the store
yesterday.
``It's just some unknown irritant," Germano said. ``They don't even
know what it is right now."
Amy Campbell, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart's corporate offices in
Arkansas, said the company was working with fire officials.
``The safety of our customers is our top concern and we will continue
to do everything we can to provide a safe atmosphere," Campbell said.
Danvers Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Farrell said that people who were
inside the store noticed the smell of gas coming from the area near the
front registers. ``It's a major incident, but it's not catastrophic,"
Farrell said.
Helene Freitas, 47, a cashier at the Wal-Mart, was wearing an oxygen
mask in the parking lot outside the store yesterday. She was taken to a
hospital in Peabody, said her sister, Beverly resident Kim Mitchell .
``She was in line and she felt burning in her eyes and throat,"
Mitchell said. ``You see this stuff on TV, not your sister."
Chris Bartholomew, 21, of Ipswich, a Wal-Mart employee, noticed what he
described as ``graininess in the air" inside the store as he was
walking to the front to go outside to help a customer.
``When I was breathing in, it kind of felt like there was sand in the
air and I started coughing," he said, adding that he had a scratchy
throat.
Bartholomew was outside when he saw paramedics arrive at the scene. He
said many people near him were coughing, and paramedics divided the
dozens affected into those who had shortness of breath and those with
other symptoms.
Bartholomew said he was treated in a makeshift decontamination tent
outside the store before he was taken by ambulance to North Shore
Medical Center in Salem. He was given oxygen, but was released after
doctors determined that he had no long-lasting symptoms.
A spokeswoman at North Shore Medical Center said 19 people had been
taken to the center's Salem facility and seven were treated at Union
Hospital in Lynn. All 26 victims have been released.
A Beverly Hospital spokesman said the hospital had treated and released
14 people and another 11 were treated and released at Addison Gilbert
Hospital in Gloucester. Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Peabody treated
a dozen.
The Rev. Rick Gardner, 38, and his wife, Ruth Anne, 35, of Lynn, were
among the many treated at North Shore Medical Center in Salem. They
described an unnerving series of events at the store.
``We were walking in, and a woman was telling a man that there was a
funny smell and someone had gotten sick," Ruth Anne Gardner said. `` As
soon as you walked near the carts, there was an overwhelming scent and
your nose started burning -- and the back of your throat."
They did not think much of it initially, and went to get pictures
developed. But as they were getting ready to leave, employees started
telling customers to leave the building.
``There wasn't any pandemonium -- they were telling everyone ` You must
exit now,' and the associates were saying ` Leave! Leave!' " Rick
Gardner said, adding that there were two firefighters at the registers
by the door.
``We smelled it and tasted it -- you just had this very bitter taste,"
Ruth Anne Gardner said. She described feeling ``woozy."
The effects of the contaminant apparently hit them as they settled into
their car. Rick Gardner, pastor of the First Church of Nazarene in
Lynn, said his arm got very warm, tingly, and a little numb.
She was decontaminated outside the store, and he was taken by ambulance
to North Shore Medical Center, where he was given oxygen. He said he
was perplexed as to why customers were guided out the front door, where
a concentrated form of the odor hung . He said he felt lightheaded, and
watched as another ambulance passenger struggled to breathe.
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