100 Sick, One Dead As Gas Leaks Into Virginia Dorm

Carbon monoxide leaked into a college dormitory early Friday, killing a man and sickening more than 100 teenagers and adults attending summer programs at Roanoke College, the school said.

College spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux said the victims were taken to two Roanoke Valley hospitals in ambulances or vans after complaining of headaches, nausea, dizziness and shakiness.

An elderly man died either at the college or en route to a hospital, said Nancy May, a spokeswoman for Lewis-Gale Medical Center.

Of the 62 people taken to Lewis-Gale, five were admitted - one in critical condition and the others in fair condition - and four others were being evaluated, said Candi Carroll, director of emergency services. The woman in critical condition was "awake, alert and responding," said Dr. Robert Dowling.

At Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, spokesman Steve Munsey said five of the 49 people treated there might be admitted. Munsey said the patients, ages 15-82, were checked for carbon monoxide in their blood and given oxygen through face masks.

Nearly 140 adults and teens from across Virginia were staying in the Salem dorm as part of Upward Bound, a program geared toward helping teens pursue higher education, and Power in the Spirit, a Lutheran group, Gereaux said.

Those in the church group appeared to have been more severely affected, but it was due more to where they were located in the dormitory than their age, Dowling said.

Members of the groups called campus police from the dorm's emergency phone shortly after dawn, and the police notified the Salem Fire Department.

A few of the people had collapsed and were taken by ambulance to hospitals. Others had milder symptoms and were transported by college van.

Experts were still trying to locate the source of the carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas than can cause sickness or death. Leaks in buildings typically come from furnaces, heaters or other gasoline-powered equipment.

Gereaux said the dorm where the victims were staying was built in the 1920s and renovated in the 1980s.

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