KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A faulty fresh-air intake attached to one of two boilers at Longfellow Elementary School caused the carbon monoxide leak Wednesday that sent nine people to area hospitals.
Kansas City, Missouri, Public Schools officials said the intake has been repaired, and a test Thursday morning showed no carbon monoxide in the building.
The test will be repeated at noon and a third test will take place Thursday afternoon, but no decision has been made yet on whether to reopen Longfellow Elementary on Friday, KCPS Public Relations Manager Elle Moxley told KSHB News by phone.
Seven students were taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital and two employees at the school were taken to University Health Truman Medical Center after showing signs of CO poisoning after exposure to the leak.
All nine people were treated and released Wednesday at the hospital, Moxley said.
“We remain extremely grateful that the quick thinking and professional actions of our Longfellow staff helped everyone get to safety yesterday,” Moxley said in a statement. “We would also like to thank KCFD and EMS for their assistance during a difficult situation.”
Moxley credited a school nurse’s quick actions with preventing more people from getting sick.
“As soon as she became aware of how the kids were feeling, she made sure all of them got outside of the building,” Moxley said by phone. “She recognized what it was.”
Several children, primarily students in younger grades at the K-6 school, became ill from carbon monoxide exposure.
Moxley said the school is equipped with working CO detectors, which sounded the alarm around the time the students and two staff members became ill.
The nine people who were hospitalized were not in the same part of the building when they began reporting symptoms, but Moxley said all of them had been in the gymnasium adjacent to the faulty fresh-air intake and boiler system prior to getting sick.
Moxley wasn’t sure how many CO detectors are present in the 65,429-square-foot building. There isn’t one in every classroom, but she said they are strategically placed throughout the building.
A routine inspection of the boilers at Longfellow Elementary was performed last Friday, and the system performed without incident Monday and Tuesday.
The only issue contractors flagged during last week’s inspection was a leaky condensation valve, which played no role in the subsequent CO leak.
Moxley said the boilers at Longfellow Elementary are less than 6 years old. She said even newer HVAC installations in district buildings allow for remote CO monitoring, but the boilers at Longfellow Elementary do not.
Students were bussed to Manual Career Tech Center for school Thursday. It’s the same school where Longfellow Elementary students were taken Wednesday after the CO leak.
KCPS front-office staff was on hand at Manual Tech to give the Longfellow Elementary staff a break, according to Moxley.
Among the activities was a science demonstration designed to make the day fun, engaging and special for students displaced from their school.
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