VERO BEACH — A chlorine gas leak from a pool supply closet caused several businesses at Sexton Plaza to be temporarily evacuated, a Vero Beach Police Department official said.
Police responded to the scene shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in the 3300 block of Ocean Drive, Sgt. Philip Huddy said. The leak originated from a container with chlorine tablets at the hotel, Huddy said.
.Vero Beach Police Department Sgt. Philip Huddy talks about chlorine gas leak that caused several businesses to evacuate at Sexton Plaza in #VeroBeach.
Người đăng: Nick Samuel vào 3 Tháng 8 2017
Police believe the leak was contained to the outside area, police spokeswoman Anna Carden said.
Patrons at the Holiday Inn and other businesses nearby had a voluntary evacuation while Mulligan’s Beach House had a mandatory evacuation, Huddy said. All evacuations were lifted about noon, Carden said.
Mulligans was directly affected from the leak because the Holiday Inn pool room, located by the hotel pool, is right behind the restaurant, said Mulligans Vice President Mary Hoertz.
Hoertz said the pool room is located in a different building than the guest rooms at the Holiday Inn. She said when Mulligans employees started smelling bleach, they self-evacuated the few customers that were inside before police arrived.
“It smelled like someone was doing a massive cleaning,” Hoertz said. “It was resolved very quickly without any damage.”
About five or six Mulligans staff members said they had trouble breathing and had bloodshot eyes.
Those employees were treated at the scene and refused to be taken to the hospital, Huddy said. No major injuries were reported.
Before the evacuations, Holiday Inn patron Amanda Miller was staying at the hotel with her family when a man who also was staying there asked her if she had been allowed back in her room.
“He said something bad was going on,” said Miller, 27, of Okeechobee. Miller said nobody told her anything and that she left her room with her three children on her own.
“I think we should’ve been informed of what was going on,” Miller said. Representatives from Holiday Inn refused to comment.
Ocean Drive between Azalea Lane and Acacia Road was closed from 8:20 a.m. to about noon, police officials said. The eastbound lane of Beachland Boulevard at Cardinal Drive also closed and reopened about the same times.
