Over 70 students hospitalized after gas leak at school

CHICAGO -- More than 70 students and several adults were hospitalized Friday, after a faulty boiler led to a carbon monoxide leak at a Jefferson Park elementary school, CBS Chicago reports.

Assistant Deputy Fire Commissioner Mark Nielsen said a boiler in the main building of Prussing Elementary School, at 4650 N. Menard Av., was the apparent source of the fumes.

The school called the fire department around 9:40 a.m., after kids began falling ill. Nielsen said the principal evacuated students from the school after one became sick, and then there was a chain reaction.

"They were headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, flulike symptoms," he said.

Students and staff were first kept outside, and then moved into mobile units outside the main building. Several students who did not need to go to hospitals were later transported to another nearby school.

A total of 71 children and 7 adults were taken to hospitals, but their injuries were not serious.

"None of the children presented a life-threatening problem," Nielsen said.

Frantic parents showed up at the school by the hundreds, and were kept away from the building. Many said they had no idea whether their kids were okay, or even whether they were still at the school.

"We have to stand out here. There's about a thousand parents out here right now, and nobody knows nothing about the kids," said Elias Rodriguez, who has three children at Prussing. "They take kids to the hospital, but they don't want to say what names they are. Come on, man."

Rodriguez said he never heard from the school, and learned about the incident from his wife's grandmother, who saw a TV report about it.

He said, even after he showed up at school, and found many other parents trying to get answers, no one from Prussing was coming out to tell them what was going on.

"Nothing, no teacher, no principal, no assistant principal," he said. "I mean, come on, be serious."

Many parents said they did not receive robocalls about the incident, and were not given information at the scene.

Parents were reunited with kids who weren't taken to hospitals about 2 ½ hours after the initial call about the carbon monoxide leak.

Nielsen said crews were able to clear the air of carbon monoxide by shutting off the boiler, and opening doors and windows.