Fumes From Spill Sicken 20 at Hotel

A Newport Beach hotel was evacuated and 20 of its employees required hospital treatment after a drum of dry cleaning fluid spilled, causing noxious fumes to spread through the hotel’s air conditioning system, Newport Beach fire officials said.

Most of those taken to two local hospitals complained of breathing problems, nausea and abdominal cramps, said a Fire Department spokesman, Gene Begnell.

A malfunctioning valve on a 55-gallon drum of tetrachloroethylene caused 30 to 50 gallons of the fluid to spill at the loading dock of the 471-room Hotel Meridien, a few hundred yards from John Wayne Airport.

The fumes quickly spread through the air-conditioning system, Begnell said. The hotel emplyees who required treatment were working on various floors of the 10-story hotel.

Suzanne Maricich, spokeswoman for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, said one person remained at the hospital late Thursday night, in fair condition. That patient was continuing treatment in the emergency room and was not admitted to the hospital, Maricich said. She said 12 others had been treated there and released.

A Costa Mesa Medical Center Hospital spokeswoman said seven persons from the hotel were treated there and sent home.

One Hoag doctor said no long-term medical effects are expected to result from the accident, according to Maricich.

Tetrachloroethylene can cause dizziness or suffocation, and can irritate or burn eyes or skin on contact, according to the 1984 Emergency Response Guide Book, which the Orange County Fire Department uses.

Following the 1:15 p.m. mishap, 250 employees and an estimated 550 guests were evacuated. No guest was injured, according to the hotel’s acting manager, Olivier Louis. Diners in the hotel’s restaurant at the time were not charged for their meals, he said.

The Orange County Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Response Team cleaned up the spill with special sponges, fire officials said.