Guessing after the alarm in the family pool with numerous injuries
Created: 07/27/2022, 10:22 am
By: Thomas Machatzke
Excitement in the leisure pool: After the chlorine gas accident was suspected, the injury was treated on site.
(Photo: Cedric Nougrigat/come-on.de) © Cedric Nougrigat
Shocking moments in Lüdenscheid's Nattenberg-Bad: A group of young people who were out and about in the indoor area of the pool (whirlpool) developed respiratory irritation on Monday afternoon.
The boys and girls complained of coughing and shortness of breath.
Lüdenscheid – A caller alerted the fire brigade, reported a gas leak and a strong smell of chlorine and also initially nine injured people who had escaped from the swimming pool to the meadow outside.
The fire brigade, which also arrived, as well as ambulances and the police, called out a mass casualty incident (MANV) with initially up to ten people and corrected the on-site assessment directly to eleven to 25 people.
The indoor area of the leisure pool was cleared.
In addition, the security forces blocked the valley road so that the rescue transports could be secured.
In the city, this significantly increased the already latent traffic chaos.
A chlorine gas accident was therefore in the room, reports come-on.de.
However, this suspicion was not confirmed afterwards - those responsible for the pool found no evidence of escaping chlorine gas, and the measurements taken by the fire brigade on site did not come to this conclusion either.
"The chlorine gas system is at a different point, and even there the measurements showed zero percent," stated the head of the pool operations department, Ronald Eden, "there is also an alarm circuit here.
We can definitely rule out a technical defect.”
Guessing after the moments of shock in the Nattenberg family pool
"The situation is much less dramatic than it appeared when the alarm was first raised," said police spokesman Christof Hüls after the situation had calmed down.
What caused the irritation of the airways in the children and adolescents, said Hüls in the late afternoon, was still unclear at this point in time.
The situation remained a mystery because while 11 of the children involved were sent home after checking for symptoms, six boys and girls were taken to the hospital for further observation.
Irritant gases, such as chlorine, can cause chemical irritation or have a toxic effect - acute damage to the upper respiratory tract can be a result, as can cauterization of the mucous membrane.
Symptoms include a burning sensation in the mouth, coughing, or a stridor, a whistling sound when inhaling.
In more severe cases, where the gases penetrate deeper, they can therefore trigger acute toxic pulmonary edema.
Then the patient has to be ventilated.
"We also have question marks as to how this impairment in children and young people comes about," stated the head of the fire brigade, Christopher Rehnert.
The fire brigade quickly corrected the mass incidence of injuries to up to ten injured people.
Ronald Eden pointed out that the police are now investigating.
It is said that the gas accident could have been caused willfully by third parties.
450 bathers were in the outdoor pool at the time of the accident.
For most, the outdoor pool operation continued normally outside.
After almost two hours, the bath opened the interior again.
The road closure was also lifted.
"Our big thanks go to all the emergency services, who did it very well," said Ronald Eden, "and of course we wish those affected a speedy recovery and hope that the cause will be found quickly."
