‘Kids were
falling like flies’

Thirty children and 10 adults
are striken by an airborne chemical

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

It was business as usual today at Westgate Center in Waipahu after a release of noxious fumes sent 30 children and 10 adults to several hospitals yesterday.

The Leeward YMCA, however, was not expected to open until noon today as a precaution, said executive director Bobby Stivers.

Officials still don’t know what chemical was released, causing those affected to suffer nausea, eye and throat irritations and breathing problems, but they suspect the release was intentional.

“My guess is that it was deliberate,” said acting Capt. Edward Gomes of the Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Unit.

“I don’t think it happened because of a malfunction of the elevator or something in the center,” Gomes added.

A state health investigator was unable to take any air samples because the smell was no longer evident by the time he arrived, said Steve Armand, manager of the state’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office.

Despite a thorough inspection of the shopping center grounds and elevator basement, “There was no evidence of any release,” Armand said today. “Whatever happened had basically dissipated by the time he arrived.”

Investigators can only guess as to what the chemical was, based on the symptoms victims suffered from and their description of it, said Capt. Alex Beck, also of the Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Unit.

Sprays used by law enforcement or the military to quell riots can cause similar effects, Beck said. Although not available to the general public, they can end up in the wrong hands.

“We’re classifying it as an aerosol irritant,” Gomes said, “because not all the symptoms of pepper spray are present. There were respiratory and eye irritations but no sign of skin burning.”

Gomes added that investigators found no trace of capsaicin, an ingredient common to pepper spray-type products.

Mandy Shiraki, a district chief for the city Emergency Medical Service, said the six most seriously affected victims, including Annette Yamaguchi, Leeward YMCA’s developmental program director, were sent to St. Francis-West Hospital.

Fourteen others were sent to Wahiawa Hospital, 12 to Kaiser-Moanalua and eight to Kapiolani Hospital at Pali Momi.

All were treated and released.

Except for four adults, everyone was affiliated with a YMCA program.

The incident was reported about 2:45 p.m. as children, 10 to 13 years of age, were heading to the second floor of the Westgate Center, where Leeward YMCA conducts an at-risk after-school class.

Firefighters and paramedics were already at the building when Yamaguchi returned from a meeting.

“It was the most horrendous thing I’ve ever seen,” Yamaguchi said. “Kids were falling like flies, some were throwing up.”

Yamaguchi began feeling ill as she rushed to the second floor.

After assisting staff to make sure all the children were safe, she began vomiting.

Yamaguchi said the smell was “somewhere between perfume and kerosene.”

“The doctors themselves who examined us do not have a clue what the substance is,” Yamaguchi said. “I personally don’t have a clue.”

Teen adviser Latasi Fereti was in a classroom when she got a headache and started coughing.

“I started smelling some kind of chemical. It was coming from the elevator shaft,” Fereti said. She said 20 to 30 children started to get ill. “It was stink,” 11-year-old Charlotte Scanlan said. “I started coughing, my eyes were sore and I got dizzy.”

Star-Bulletin reporter Harold Morse contributed to this report.