JEFFERSON COUNTY — More than two dozen students and staffers at Chatfield High School were sent to area hospitals Friday after a still- unidentified airborne irritant wafted through the school on freshman orientation day.
“There was some sort of odor causing upper-respiratory distress,” said Michelle French, spokeswoman for West Metro Fire Rescue.
West Metro responders were already in the school’s parking lot, tending to a seizure victim, when the school’s fire alarm started ringing shortly after noon. Students and staff began streaming from the school.
Within minutes, 17 staffers and eight students reported breathing difficulties.
“I felt a little tickle in my throat, and I kept having the need to cough,” said Dylan Wetzel, 14, one of 500 students in the school.
“People just started coughing and choking,” said 14-year-old McKenzie Lessard. “I guess when they inhaled it, they got a really sore throat, then headaches. Then some people passed out.”
The school was quickly evacuated as West Metro assembled a decontamination station in the parking lot. Students and staff having trouble breathing were stripped of their clothes, given a shower and handed new clothes before taking buses to three area hospitals.
The unknown irritant was contained in one area of the school, French said. Students and staff identified it as the cafeteria and theater.
“We were all in the theater earlier in the day, and it was fine,” said Courtney Kauffman, 14.
Many students assumed the fire alarm was a drill and part of their orientation.
“Our teachers were saying it was probably a drill and we were all just, like, walking out of the school,” said Jordan Zwart, 14. “Then they told us it was real and we had to go line up on the football field.”
As students sweltered on the field, parents were called through a reverse 911 message sent to their homes. Many heard news of the evacuation on the radio or saw it on the Internet.
Shortly after 1 p.m., parents, some talking on cellphones, began arriving at the school parking lot.
“I was talking to her on the phone, so I wasn’t all that worried,” said Christopher Lessard, McKenzie’s dad.
Students were held on the field until about 2 p.m. A water truck was rolled onto the field for the students after they waited in the sun for an hour.
“Everyone really didn’t care about sharing water bottles. We were thirsty,” McKenzie Lessard said.
Walter Loeblein, a network technician at the school, was in the area where others began feeling ill.
“I didn’t smell anything. Nothing like a solvent or a cleaner or smoke. Nothing with a pungent odor,” he said. “Just a tickle in the back of my throat.”
Fourteen students and staff were sent to Littleton Adventist Hospital on a school bus. A spokeswoman there said the students were in good spirits and they were being tested as a precautionary measure. By Friday evening, no one had been admitted to hospitals as a result of the incident.
“At this point, it looks like minor injuries,” said French, of West Metro Fire Rescue.
By 2:30 p.m., the irritant seemed to have dissipated, French said.
Emergency crews turned the building over to the school district about 3:15 p.m., after hazmat crews could not find the source of the problem.
Lynn Setzer, spokeswoman for Jeffco Public Schools, said officials have not decided whether the school will be open for classes Monday, the first day of the school year.
She said the district will run the school’s air system continuously over the weekend and monitor the air to determine whether it poses a hazard. Parents were told to watch for a message from the district Sunday or to check the school district’s website, , for updates.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
