OXNARD : 7 Sickened by Fumes of Drain Cleaners

A child was hospitalized and six other people were sickened after neighbors in an Oxnard apartment building inadvertently created a dangerous gas when each tried to clear a clogged pipe with chemicals, a fire official said Wednesday.

The incident in the 2000 block of Mariposa Street was reported at 10:20 p.m. Tuesday, but the problem had been brewing for hours, said Oxnard Fire Capt. Richard Elliot.

At 10 a.m., Gina Lauallee, a single mother who shared an apartment with Anna Wenn and three children, poured a commonly used liquid cleaner into a drain, Elliot said.

Ten hours later in an adjacent apartment that Jose Chiares shared with his wife, Chiares attacked the plugged drain with sulfuric acid, Elliot said. The sulfuric acid reacted with the two bases in the cleaner to form chlorine gas, Elliot said.