36 Macomb County Students Sent To Hospital After Incident With Fog Machine, School Evacuated

MACOMB TOWNSHIP (WWJ) - More than 30 young students were sent to a local hospital Wednesday following an incident at a Macomb County elementary school.

According to a Utica Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Christine Johns, fifth grade students at Beck Centennial Elementary were rehearsing for an upcoming musical performance when they were sickened by output from a fog machine.

Multiple EMS units responded to the scene, on Hayes between 24 and 25 Mile roads, and the school was evacuated.

Johns said somehow the fog machine malfunctioned — "the concentration was wrong," — and, basically there was just too much fog.

Johns said there were 112 students in the auditorium at the time, and 36 of them were taken away by ambulance.  Some of them, she said, had symptoms like nausea, others felt faint, and one student passed out.

"The staff immediately acted appropriately," Johns said. "They called 911 and as 911 came in they immediately started evaluating the fifth grade class."

All the sick students were responding to treatment, Johns said, and were expected to be OK.

After noon, WWJ's Sandra McNeill reported multiple ambulances and fire trucks remained on the scene — and officials were not letting anyone onto the school grounds.

She spoke with Beth Dilger, who came to pick up her two sons when she noticed the commotion and evacuation not long after she'd dropped them off.

"Everyone was calm, the kids were calm," Digler said. "They were bringing kids out that I think were having some breathing problems."

Parents of students not taken to the hospital were told to pick up their kids at Eisenhower High School at 25 Mile Road and Shelby.

Johns said the air quality at Beck Elementary was double checked and the school would reopen for class on Thursday.