Fourteen people were taken to the hospital Wednesday from a construction site in a Yale University-owned building in New Haven after being exposed to carbon monoxide.
Construction workers were using a propane-powered saw without proper ventilation in a building on Howe Street, and without required carbon monoxide detectors, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said.
Two people were in serious condition as a result of the incident, Elicker said.
One person was found unconscious on the sidewalk, and was brought to Yale New Haven Hospital, but at first it was not clear that he had been at the construction site, Elicker said.
“That person at the hospital started to come to, and there was also a Spanish language barrier, but once the hospital got a translator and started talking to the person, they realized that the person was working on a construction site, and appeared to have carbon monoxide poisoning,” Elicker said.
The hospital and an ambulance company called the fire department, which searched the area and found high levels of carbon monoxide at the construction site.
Nine of the people hospitalized were construction workers, but five were in a Yale security office next door, according to Elicker.
Workplace safety officials are investigating. A Yale spokesperson didn't immediately reply to a request from the Associated Press seeking comment.
