SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine-
A supermarket reopened Tuesday morning following a scare in which more than 50 customers and employees were treated for burning throats, difficulty breathing and nausea.
Officials believe a problem with the heating system was to blame for the symptoms that led to Monday’s evacuation of the recently renovated Shaw’s Supermarket at Mill Creek.
“It was not an intentional act. It was an equipment malfunction,” fire Lt. Robb Couture said Tuesday.
The manager ordered the supermarket evacuated after customers and workers began coughing and covering their mouths with shirts and handkerchiefs.
More than 50 people went to three local hospitals on their own or by ambulance. Police say no one appeared to be seriously ill. Most of the people who fell ill were feeling better within an hour or so.
The Fire Department’s sensitive monitoring equipment was unable to detect any foreign substances, although workers testing the heating system after the building was cleared noticed a metallic odor, Couture said.
The Northern New England Poison Control Center initially suspected Freon, but Couture said workers tested the refrigeration system and found no leaks.
“It could be something that we never know what it really was,” said Dr. Tamas Peredy, a medical toxicologist who consulted with medical workers on the incident.
