School Cafeteria Workers Taken To Hospital After Odor Makes Them Feel Ill

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Kitchen workers at Orchard Villa Elementary School were loaded into ambulances Thursday after getting sick at school.

We're told they were preparing lunch when suddenly there was a problem.

"We were met by seven workers from the cafeteria who complained of dizziness and nausea and we understand they were all in the cafeteria at this time," said Miami Fire Rescue Captain Ignatius Carroll.

Miami Fire rescue sent the haz mat team inside to investigate.

School officials tell CBS4 it appears the problem was carbon monoxide.

Now they're checking exhaust fans to see if there was a problem.

"They did detect unusually high carbon monoxide gas levels," said Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. "Obviously the concern here is carbon monoxide is an odorless gas."

This isn't the first time there was a problem like this at Orchard Villa.

Seven workers were also taken to the hospital from the kitchen back in November of last year.

It has parents on edge.

"It makes you kind of concerned and worried because this is the second time this year that it happened," said Ashanti Young. "I hope they really find out what's going on, what's causing the problem before a lot of the kids get sick."

Young has four children who go to school at Orchard Villa.

While no students were affected by this, she's keeping a close eye on her kids.

"Me personally, I'm going to watch my kids for the next 24-48 hours to make sure that nothing comes later," she said.

Carvalho said because of these two incidents, he's ordering all county schools to install carbon monoxide detectors in school kitchens and cafeterias.

In this case, kids were lucky -- no one was in the cafeteria yet -- and the building is not connected with the rest of the school.

"The cafeteria is an isolated building," Carvalho said. "It is not attached, contiguous to the classrooms and there were not students inside at that time."