(Gazette photo) Authorities aren’t commenting on the extent of injuries to 15 people who had “serious exposure” to an ammonia gas leak (Sunday) morning inside the Birds Eye food packaging plant, but the 15 were transported to five different area hospitals.
Police and firefighters responded at 5:15 a.m. to the plant on County X in Darien, for a leak of ammonia gas.
Those injured were being treated for eye irritation and ammonia gas “inhalation injuries,” including lung spasms.
Crews flushed ammonia from the plant by using fans to pressurize air inside the plant and force the ammonia outside.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were notified of the leak, and its cause remains under investigation.
