Posted on 05/13/2009 7:27:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It had been somebody's lunch once. Or maybe a soft-cheese snack, tucked away — and then forgotten — in the back of an office mini-fridge at the AT&T call center in North San Jose.
That was long ago, before figs become fur-bearing and corned beef mutates into stink on rye. Nobody really knows what it was in the offending refrigerator that prompted an evacuation Tuesday morning and ambulance rides to the hospital for seven people, who were overcome by the stench and fumes from an ill-fated attempt to clean it.
It finally became so unbearable that the San Jose Fire Department's hazmat team was summoned to the North First Street office complex just before lunchtime. Before they could determine that it wasn't an attempt by terrorists to disable the information grid — maybe just some broccoli from the Bush administration gone really, really bad — a second alarm was issued.
In the end, 325 AT&T employees poured out to a parking lot that was the company's designated evacuation site. A total of 50 firefighters and 18 emergency vehicles raced to the scene. Seven employees, who were vomiting or complaining of nausea, were treated at area hospitals.
The aroma of rotting food was hard enough to stomach. But when an employee decided to remove the mess to a conference room and scour the fridge with a cleaning fluid similar to 409 or Lysol, "she didn't smell a thing," said Capt. Barry Stallard of the fire department. The woman on fridge duty had previously undergone nasal surgery for allergies.
Adding to the noxious mix, another employee sprayed a different chemical cleaner into the air, assuming it would temper the scent, Stallard said. "And that's when the party started."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Ping
Now really. Isn’t that overreacting just a tad?
Heck, my ex wifes cooking could do that BEFORE you put it in the fridge.
Guess someone missed the memo about ammonia and bleach...
Brake fluid and those pool chlorine tablets are much more fun anyway...
;)
That was a Peggy Hill household cleaning tip.~ "To harness the cleaning power of ammonia with the whitening power of bleach." s10e04
Have you ever inhaled the fumes of a rotting carcass? Trust me it isn’t over-reacting.
This kind of mass hysteria is usually traced to women, have any articles mentioned their sex?
I’ve never been to a Joe Biden rally.
The article falsely suggests that the health effects, evacuation, etc. were due to a yucky rotten smell. In fact, they seem to be due to chemical interaction.
Of course, a public spirited media would use this as a valuable public safety message, instead of a cute but false article to sell papers.
Hmm. It’s my month to clean the office break room.
I’d better check the ‘fridge.
The award for best refrigerator stench goes to...
...the July weekend in Southern California when we went out of town and returned to find our refrigerator had quit.. with five pound of sea bass in the freezer. We smelled it from the sidewalk before we even opened the door.
We had to ditch the ‘fridge and buy a new one; the smell never left it.
I am going to print this out and post it anonymously on our breakroom refrigerator.
Hehe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.