Chlorine leak hits crowd at Brighton
. The Christchurch police late last evening were looking for a girl, aged about three, who collapsed after a chlorine leakage at the Queen Elizabeth II Park leisure centre. The girl’s father took her from the park, but the police last evening appealed through the news media for him to take her to a hospital for treatment. It was feared that the girl might suffer further sickness. Twelve other people were taken to Christchurch Hospital by ambulance for observation. The chlorine fumes had leaked from a shed by the “bumpa boats" pool. . A girl who saw the incident said that many people were standing on a bank about 10m away and did not seem aware that dangerous fumes were drifting. < Four fire engines and two ambulances Went to the park soon after 7 p.m. Firemen wearing breathing gear used water to neutralise the chlorine. Most of those affected suffered nausea, although the inhalation of chlorine fumes can cause breathing problems. Firemen quickly removed the source of the fumes, and the “bumpa boats” reopened after about
30 minutes. The night shift worker for the boats, Mr Terry James, said that he tried to warn people to keep away from the shed from where the fumes were coming. But some continued to walk by, ignoring the danger. Fumes had started to come from a batch of granulated chlorine that he was diluting. He said that it was like “tear-gas.” He got in touch with the emergency services as soon as the fumes started to drift from the shed, which stands close to the ticket office for the boats.
One of the 12 people taken to hospital for observation was a boy, aged 14, who had been working at the bumper boats as an attendant.
His parents said their son was thought to have been the first person to open the door to the pumphouse.
“All the fumes just came gushing out at him,” said the boy’s mother, who had gone to the park to pick him up.
“When I got there my son was in an ambulance ready to be taken to hospital," she said.
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Press, 28 December 1985, Page 1
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358Chlorine leak hits crowd at Brighton Press, 28 December 1985, Page 1
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