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There is nice perfume, strong perfume and then there's perfume that's powerful enough to empty a building and alarm emergency responders and the media.
Fort Worth firefighters said that was the case Wednesday afternoon when they were summoned with ambulances to the Bank of America building, 5401 Beach St. in north Fort Worth.Thirty-four people were taken to area hospitals after they complained of chest pains and shortness of breath around 12:45 p.m., officials said.Emergency officials responded to what they initially believed was a leak of carbon monoxide -- a colorless, poisonous gas with no odor.Firefighters learned, however, that the actual culprit was anything but odorless."Just two employees reported some dizziness in close association with someone spraying on some perfume," said Lt. Kent Worley, fire department spokesman.Jumana Bauwens, spokeswoman for Bank of America, said about 1,800 to 2,200 employees work in the building."From my understanding, there was an announcement made, at one point, by the fire department asking our people to come down to the lobby to receive medical attention," she said.But Worley suggested that the situation escalated because of "psychosomatic behavior.""When these employees reported their illness to a supervisor, an announcement was made over the building's PA system saying that anyone feeling these symptoms should exit the building to an outside location," Worley said.Subsequently, Worley said, numerous people left the building, although many others continued working "with no ill effect.""We called a (hazardous materials) unit to the scene but they didn't detect anything on their air monitoring unit." he said. "That air monitoring unit can detect carbon monoxide and several other chemicals and products that can be in the air."But they found nothing that would have caused people to get sick."Firefighters declared at about 3 p.m. that it was safe for employees to re-enter the structure. Nevertheless, 12 people were taken by ambulances to hospitals, said Lara Kohl, a spokeswoman for MedStar. Twenty-two with less serious symptoms were taken to the hospital by a city bus, Kohl said.The original count of people taken by ambulances was seven."In a situation like that, the numbers are changing," she said.Another 110 people were evaluated and released at the scene, Kohl said."We haven't heard anything back from the hospitals yet," she said regarding the fire department's assessment that the incident was caused by some perfume.Bill Miller, 817-390-7684
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