UPDATED: PHOTOS & VIDEO: 34 Transported to Hospital after Contamination at Industrial Park Plant

UPDATED: PHOTOS & VIDEO: See our News Alerts for live updates and photos. (@lakewoodscoop) (You can also sign up by sending ‘Follow lakewoodscoop’ to ‘40404’Thirty four patients were transported to area hospitals this afternoon after being contaminated by a Nitrogen Refrigeration product, mixed with CO2, an EMS official told TLS.

The incident began about 12 PM when multiple employees at the food packaging plant on Lehigh Avenue in the Industrial Park began feeling ill.

Emergency personnel arriving on scene immediately evacuated all people from the plant and moved them to a Triage area.

Dozens of Emergency Personnel from EMS, Hatzolah, Lakewood First Aid and multiple other agencies from Lakewood and surrounding towns responded to the scene, where a Triage area was set up a neighborhing building. As in every MCI event, a Treatment Area, Transport Area and EMS Staging Area were also established in the vicinity.

The patients, says Captain Tommy Langenberger, suffered from respiratory illnesses, but none appeared to be life-threatening.

An EMS official told TLS that most of the patients suffered from chest pains, or shortness of breath.

The Haz-Mat team was called in to investigate the leak. [TLS]

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40 COMMENTS

  1. MCI = Mass Casualty Incident is any incident in which emergency medical services resources, such as personnel and equipment, are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties.

  2. Did any ems personel go into the contaminated area?? That would be similar to the drill you did at the school on river avenue. Hopefully the patients were DECONED once they arrived at the hospital.

  3. What does it even mean to become contaminated with Liquid Nitrogen? If they came into contact with the liquid, it would give them burns and maybe frostbite. If the liquid evaporated, it would then be plain nitrogen gas, which is what most of our air is composed of anyway. So at most there might have been oxygen deprivation due to the abnormally high level of Nitrogen. Not exactly “contamination.”

  4. Mci – Many Concerned Individuals. Also Mar Cheshvan, Indeed. Most Conservatives Intelligent. Moderate Cholesteral Intake. Whatwver.

  5. I agree with Zeke. This is much ado about nothing. In order to be a liquid, ,nitrogen must be kept super cold. Once it leaks out it becomes part of the air. We all breathe in nitrogen with every breath

  6. Wow, I love how so many people think they ‘know it all’ and feel confident enough to criticize those who give their time to help the public. All without being there or having any training etc. (some comments display obvious ignorance). If you want to be in the know join an agency and get training. (Yes, I was there as a member of an official emergency response agency.)

  7. now do you folks understand why people(with brains) where/are upset when schools are built in industrial parks? many cried that our protest to schools being build in industrial complexes was/is anti-Semitic, when in fact it was us who was afraid for YOUR kids.

    industrial complexes have companies that have many-many toxic and explosive chemicals that could impact the lives of children if something were to ever happen.

  8. It was reported to be nitrogen and carbon dioxide, which makes sense in a food packaging plant. The combination forces oxygen out of the packaging to delay and prevent food spoilage, and logically would cause shortness of breath, chest pain and confusion to anyone subjected to it because of the lack of oxygen.

  9. The amount of ignorance in these comments is ridiculous. Regardless of the science of “nitrogen is in the air naturally” other factors seemed to be involved. When you have 3 dozen patients in a concentrated area all with the same complaints it is safe to assume something is not right. That many patients is way too much for a single agency to handle alone, hence calling a MCI to get all available resources to help. Plus let’s all remember hindsight is always 20/20. And yes I am a member of one of the responding agencies, however I was not on scene so I have no direct knowledge of the exact events.

  10. I would call this an MAI – a Multi Askonim Incident. I see askonim from all our different agencies ( I don’t see any here from Tomchei Shabbos though)

  11. Great job by all the agencies who responded to today’s incident! Lakewood FD, Berkley Haz Mat, Lakewood EMS, Brick and Toms River Police EMS, Hatzolah, MONOC, and the other agencies who came from south county and Monmouth County. LEMS Supervisor Scott Carter managed this MCI very effectively and proves the asset he is to the township! Wish a speedy recovery to all those who got ill !!

  12. i understand when people say schools shouldnt be in industrial areas, however, my question is where else should the school be? not in residential areas either and I am sure not in parks. so where?

  13. as many have said the ignorance here is amazing.
    whether one inhales nitrogen and CO2 it’s gonna mess up your metabolism and your respiratory system as anyone who has taken biochemistry can tell you.That being said, if EMS responded and sees that many people are fatigued and have shortness of breath they are gonna take them in to the ER no questions asked and they will let the doctors who actually understand this stuff decide if it warrants further medical attention.

  14. Great job by all the agencies involved: LPD., LFA, LFD, Hatzalah, Chaverim, and all surrounding agencies who pitched in to help! THANK YOU for taking the time out of YOUR Sunday a few weeks ago to prepare for such an emergency!

  15. lakewood is large, but unless you start buying up private homes and property to merge them into schools, you will soon enough run out of space. the growth in lakewood is unsustainable at this rate. schools in industrial parks, tons of new homes, etc. lakewood will no longer be the ‘wood’ in lakewood. it will be lakeconcrete.

  16. I have to tell you from being on the fire side, I was quite impressed on how the EMS Supervisor (scott) took this head on and handled it without any issues or people getting hurt. The coordination and control was without question. I never saw this side of his abilities, i was impressed. Great Job to everyone who knew what to do

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