By Captain Tim Bradley

PHOTO COURTESY OF AURORA FD Members of the Aurora Fire Department

AURORA, Ill. — At 1242 hours on a weekday in mid June 2006, the Aurora Fire Department responded to a report of a male with heat exhaustion. It was a very humid, hot summer afternoon and this would not have been an unusual incident given the conditions. The call originated from a large factory where this male had been working for the past 4 hours.  Engine 9 (Captain Tim Bradley, Paramedic Ricardo Torres and Firefighter Chuck Wonderling) and Medic 4 (Paramedics Steve Matthias and Todd McChurch) arrived to the scene and were met by site security.  The patient was located on a second floor landing on one end of the factory. He appeared confused and agitated. We put the patient on O2 with a non-rebreather mask, initiated ALS care and moved to the ambulance. At this point in time, nobody questioned that the patient was anything other than a normal case of heat exhaustion.

Shortly after entering the ambulance, Paramedic Matthias stuck his head out the back and advised me that the patient had a CO level of 9%. He said that he was using the SpO2 portion of the RAD-57 to check the patient’s oxygen sat when he noticed the carbon monoxide level in the patient.

My crew entered the building with our handheld gas meter and immediately found CO levels fluctuating between 40 and 55 ppm. The levels continued to increase as we walked to the far side of the structure, eventually getting as high as 556 ppm. At that time, a truck company and Battalion Chief were requested to the scene. Of immediate concern was the fact that there were a number of pregnant females working in this environment. This, in addition to the high CO ppm readings, led to the immediate evacuation of over 100 employees from the structure to an area a safe distance away. Some of the people being evacuated began complaining of headaches and fatigue. These people were taken to the ambulance where their vitals and CO levels were evaluated. When none were found with elevated CO, they were returned to the evacuation area. 

The carbon monoxide source was identified as propane and gasoline operated power lifts that were being utilized to install rack storage.  These units were removed from the building and the levels slowly dropped to 0 ppm. About 3 hours later, the employees were allowed back into the building.

The original patient was transported to a local hospital where he was treated and released. The RAD-57 made a huge difference that day, preventing a serious situation from spiraling out of control. It also saved the local hospitals from an avalanche of patients.  Fortunately we were able to handle it all on scene, without overwhelming our system’s resources. This incident was mitigated with only 1 minor injury, but I am left to wonder what would have happened if we did not have the RAD-57 that day. 

The City of Aurora Fire Department (Aurora, IL) consists of a 39 square mile area approximately 40 miles west of Chicago. We serve a population of 157,267 with 203 career firefighters. The department has 9 Pumpers, 3 aerial/platform units, 6 medic units, 3 Battalion Chiefs.