Chlorine Fumes at Swim Meet Injure 12

Two children were hospitalized and 10 other people were treated for inhalation of chlorine fumes after a pipe burst during a swim meet Saturday at El Toro High School.

The unseen but smelly chlorine fumes sent the 450 swimmers and about 1,000 spectators into the parking lot while police and county firefighters sealed off the area, rerouting traffic away from Serrano Road.

Justin Urban, 8, of Mission Viejo and an unidentified child were treated at Saddleback Community Hospital and released. The children complained of chest pains, upset stomach and itchy eyes, said County Fire Department Battalion Chief Jerold Hunter, who directed the response team.

Jackie Blacketer, 37, of Anaheim, who had been beside the pool timing her 16-year-old son Brian’s race when the leak occurred, said she smelled chlorine and then coughed and “felt sick to my stomach. My eyes were burning.”

Evacuation Went Smoothly

Merritt Julson, 45, of El Toro, a swim meet coordinator, said the evacuation was done “very smoothly, with no panic.”

“These people are swim people and they understand chlorine; you don’t screw around with chlorine,” Julson said.

Mark Brill, 20, a pool maintenance employee, said he had noticed water flowing under the door of the chlorine room. When he opened the door, he said, he saw “a big leak” in a chlorine pipe. He was unable to contain the leak before firefighters arrived and shut off the flow.

The pipe contains a highly concentrated mixture of chlorine and water that is automatically monitored and fed to the pool.

Another swim meet official, Stan Reaves, 41, of El Toro, said he was carrying his 7-year-old daughter, who had just competed in the meet, toward the corner of the pool where the chlorine system is stored when “we got nailed” by a heavy whiff of chlorine.

“Everybody picked up on it real fast and moved on it,” he said.

Announcers for the meet used the public address system to order an evacuation, which already had begun. Meet secretaries dialed 911 and the County Fire Department dispatched a hazardous-waste unit, two fire engines and a paramedic team.

“None of the injuries seemed serious,” Hunter said. “In 15 or 20 minutes, it (chlorine) should get out of their systems.”

El Toro High School Principal Don Martin, who was in his office at the other end of the campus when the pipe burst, said: “We just shut down the tank. There’s no danger now at all.”

Swimmers and spectators streamed back into the pool area and, in just over an hour, the invitational swim meet, sponsored by Saddleback Valley Aquatics, was reopened.