Fire officials say employees at a day care in Kittery, Maine, helped prevent a tragedy by quickly evacuating children who began feeling sick during a carbon monoxide incident on Wednesday.
Seven people from the Building Blocks Learning Center on Route 236 were hospitalized Wednesday afternoon but none were seriously injured.
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The Maine Fire Marshal's Office said staff at the day care noticed an odor and made the decision to evacuate after people inside started feeling unwell, and that decision might have saved lives.
“It is important to note that daycare providers of the Building Blocks Learning Center recognized a problem and took action,” State Fire Marshal Shawn Esler said in a statement. “They evacuated children and staff to safety and notified the fire department as soon as they recognized something was wrong. Their quick response, the professionalism of the Kittery Fire Department, and the medical expertise of the Portsmouth Regional Hospital helped prevent a tragedy.”
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The fire marshal's office said when firefighters arrived at the day care around 3:19 p.m. Wednesday, there was no carbon monoxide alarm activation and no issues were found with the building's heating system.
The source of the carbon monoxide has been determined to have been a propane-powered concrete saw that was being used in an adjacent suite and was not affiliated with the day care, fire officials said. The space was under construction and the concrete saw had been in use throughout the day.
Propane-powered gas saws are not intended to be used indoors and are often labeled to prevent use in unventilated spaces, the fire marshal's office said.
Investigators believe that carbon monoxide from the saw's exhaust likely infiltrated the day care through an HVAC air intake duct that services other parts of the building. It also might have gotten into the day care through a suspended ceiling that had been removed as part of the construction.
The fire marshal's office said a construction permit was obtained through local code enforcement for the suite where the concrete saw was operated.
The building where the incident occurred does have a fire alarm system, and the fire marshal's office said it was showing normal status when firefighters arrived at the scene on Wednesday. But the detectors in the area where the construction was happening had been covered.
The investigation is ongoing, the fire marshal's office said, and they are still working to determine whether carbon monoxide detectors were present, because some smoke alarms and combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are similar in appearance.
