Rescue forces were called on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah to a basement apartment in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem, following a report of 8 family members feeling unwell as a result of inhaling a toxic substance - this after two generators were placed in a closed room near the apartment, on Lev Dayan Street.
Itzik Cohen, a United Hatzalah medic, said after the holiday: "The family members suffered from signs of pallor, dizziness and headaches due to inhaling the toxic substance. We were told that it was a leak from a generator. The eight were evacuated to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus.".
Following the report of several injured people being evacuated from the apartment to hospitals, firefighters from the Ha'Uma area station of the HVD were called to the scene, with the assistance of a monitoring unit.
After monitoring operations and identifying the hazardous material, firefighters discovered that the source of the leak was two generators operating on site to supply electricity - from which the toxic gas was emitted into the nearby house.
The teams worked to ventilate the apartment from the toxic gas, and also conducted extensive scans to rule out the presence of additional victims.
Incident commander, Reshef Shai Drori: "We received a report of several citizens feeling unwell in a basement apartment, and an immediate suspicion of carbon monoxide poisoning arose. Firefighters, in cooperation with the spatial monitoring unit, detected high concentrations of CO gas and acted quickly to ventilate the area and ensure that no other residents in the building were in danger.""
Israel Fire and Rescue reminds the public: Especially in closed and unventilated places, extreme caution should be exercised when operating heating and cooking equipment and care should be taken to ensure constant ventilation.
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