VENTURA : Gas Leak at Hospital Leads to Evacuation

A leak of toxic, flammable gas in the basement of the Ventura County Medical Center prompted the evacuation of two floors and closed the emergency room Sunday, authorities said.

Hazardous materials teams for the cities of Ventura and Oxnard and for Ventura County tracked the release of gas to a cellar area where tanks of oxygen, nitrous oxide and ethylene oxide are stored. But investigators were unable to determine the exact cause of the discharge after a six-hour investigation.

“We couldn’t come up with an answer as to why the system got over-pressurized and purged,” said Barry Simmons, a Ventura Fire Department spokesman.

Authorities were summoned to the hospital at 11 a.m. in response to a suspected leak of ethylene oxide, a gas used to sterilize medical instruments and equipment. Simmons said the gas “is highly toxic and extremely flammable stuff.”

Edward Lugo, who works in the hospital’s central supply department, reported hearing a high-pitched sound similar to the shriek of escaping gas about two minutes before a sensor alarm sounded a series of electronic beeps.

Fire officials ordered the evacuation of the hospital’s first floor and the basement, which houses the county morgue and the hospital’s medical records and central supply departments. Although no patients were evacuated, hospital visitors were ordered to leave the building, and emergency room patients were sent to nearby Community Memorial Hospital of San Buenaventura and St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

Jonette Duchai, the county hospital’s associate administrator, said tests done on patient-care floors Sunday afternoon indicated that the leaked gas had not escaped farther than the basement. Simmons said air samples taken throughout the building ultimately showed no trace of the gas.

Simmons said the only indication of a leak that investigators found was a buildup of condensation on the ethylene oxide tanks. He said an engineer for the company that installed the sterilization system declared it safe at 5 p.m., at which time the emergency room reopened and visitors were allowed back into the building.