A middle school student in Thornton was taken to a local hospital Tuesday after he complained that he was shocked by a fallen weather balloon.
The incident happened over the noon hour at Niver Creek Middle School, 9450 Pecos St., said Chad McCollum, a Thornton Fire Department spokesman.
The balloon, owned and flown by the National Weather Service, landed in the schoolyard, and “a couple of kids took it inside on their lunch break,” McCollum said.
A device attached to the weather balloon, which collects data, was giving off a sulphur smell, and a battery attached to it was warm, McCollum said.
One of the boys complained that he had been shocked when he picked up the balloon, and he told school staffers and firefighters that his arm was numb, McCollum said.
The boy, who was not identified by the fire department, was taken to North Suburban Medical Center as a precautionary measure, McCollum said.
Details on the boy’s injuries, if any, were not available.
Adams 12 Five-Star Schools declined comment on the incident.
The balloon had an identification tag and a phone number for the weather service, McCollum said.
McCollum said the weather service told fire investigators that the balloons and data units are “harmless.”
A call to a National Weather Service spokesman was not immediately returned.
McCollum said the weather service launches the balloons daily from a site near the old Stapleton Airport.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
