Date: Fri 14-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

schools-St-Rose-extiguisher

Full Text:

with cut: Fire Safety System Extinguishes St Rose Field Day Fun

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Newtown Hook and Ladder and Sandy Hook firefighters responded to St Rose

School on Church Hill Road about midday Monday after an automatic fire

extinguishing system went off in a kitchen in the church hall, peppering about

35 students and adults with the pressurized fire retardant powder known as

monammonium phosphate.

Hook and Ladder Fire Chief Steve Murphy said 26 children and nine adults were

affected by the chemical.

At about 12:20 pm, children and adults were attending the school's annual

field day. They were cooking hot dogs and hamburgers in a kitchen on the east

side of the church hall. The kitchen has large wooden panels on one wall which

can be raised to allow food to be served to people outdoors on a large porch.

While cooking, a spit of flame flashed upward, causing heat detectors above

the stove to trigger and dispense the fire retardant chemical which is

discharged at 100 pounds of pressure.

Monammonium pohosphate is a mild eye, skin and respiratory irritant, Chief

Murphy said.

None of the people who were affected by the chemical had to be taken to the

hospital, he said.

Dr George Terranova, director of emergency medicine at Danbury Hospital, went

to the scene in a paramedic vehicle to treat those affected by the chemical.

Five fire trucks, four ambulances and two paramedic vehicles responded to the

call. An estimated 15 firefighters and 15 ambulance personnel went to the

church grounds. Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Bethel ambulance workers

went to the scene.

Emergency personnel were at the scene for almost two hours.

People affected by the chemical's discharge went into St Rose Church where Dr

Terranova, emergency medical technicians, and firefighters tended to them.

Because the area where the automatic fire extinguisher had discharged was

covered with monammonium phosphate after the incident, the kitchen required a

thorough cleaning and affected food had to be discarded.

School Principal Donna DeLuca said Wednesday that emergency service workers

who responded to the scene did an incredible job in dealing with the incident.

"They basically brought Danbury Hospital to us," she said.

"I could not have been happier with the expediency and the efficiency of the

crews," she said.