Leroy Township, OH – Newsnet 5 -More than a dozen Girl Scouts and their counselors were transported to local hospitals after they were poisoned by carbon monoxide, NewsChannel5 reported.
The CO detector went off at Lake Erie Girl Scout Camp Lejnar late Saturday night.
“The CO detector and smoke alarm started going off, so they removed everybody from the building and called 911,” said Chief Frank Huffman.
The Leroy Township Fire Department got the first call at midnight. Huffman said the girls’ symptoms were too strong to ignore.
“Initially there were six, but some of the couselors were also feeling ill. We ended up transporting 14 people to Lake East and Geauga Hospital,” Huffman said.
There were two Girl Scout troops at the camp when the detectors went off. One was from Lake County and the other was from Geauga County. Officials said all of the girls were under the age of 15.
Ann Fairhurst, with the Girl Scouts, said the troops started the fireplace early in the day because of Saturday’s chilly weather, but they didn’t spend a lot of time inside until later that night.
“They had been out at the fire pit outside and came in around 11 o’clock. They were in for a very short period of time and all of the alarms, we have CO detectors and smoke detectors inside. All the alarms went off and the adults that were with them got them evacuated,” Fairhurst said.
Fire investigators said within several hours everyone was treated and returned to Camp Lejanr.