Radford students, staff return after chemical incident
By Rod Ohira and James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writers
Students and faculty returned to Radford High School today with no traces of the chemical incident that disrupted classes yesterday.
“There’s no problems today,” said Radford Principal Robert Stevens.
Officials may never know definitively what caused the itchy throats and rashes that sent 27 students and 11 adults to nearby hospitals, but Stevens said the suspicion is a pepper spray-type chemical. “We’re glad that it was only in the cafeteria area,” he added.
Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said air monitoring was unable to detect any chemical presence.
School was dismissed shortly before noon yesterday. Nine of the 11 adults affected were cafeteria workers, Stevens said.
The adults and students had been treated and released from the hospitals by noon yesterday.
Stevens added that he was initially concerned the exposure could be mercury brought over from the nearby Pu‘uwai Momi public housing project, which was contaminated over the weekend and has been evacuated since Monday.
“It’s nothing to do with mercury,” Soo said.
The incident started about 8:15 a.m., when several students and workers in the cafeteria noticed symptoms of chemical exposure during breakfast. The school staff called County Emergency Medical Services, which arrived minutes later.
Two of the fire department’s hazardous materials units arrived at 8:35 a.m. The HazMat units closed the cafeteria and did air monitoring.
Eight Radford students were washed down and decontaminated in the parking lot and were to be taken to Tripler Army Medical Center. Six cafeteria workers, three custodians and two educational assistants were hospitalized.
The other 19 students were not washed down and did not complain of itchy throats or rashes, but felt they had been exposed to the chemical. They were taken to the Pali Momi or Kaiser hospital, Soo said.
Less than three hours after the first instances of illness, Stevens ordered the campus closed for the rest of the day. He said that with the cafeteria closed, there was no way to feed students.
Cafeteria worker Franz said there are usually about 100 students in the cafeteria for breakfast.
Margaret Tippy, public affairs officer for Tripler, said emergency room doctors determined that the symptoms of stinging eyes, coughing, itchy throats and rash were consistent with a surface irritant such as pepper spray.
"I was shaking," Cagimat continued. "I don't know what to do. I don't even have a blanket for my child. My children's uniforms are inside the house. This is my auntie's house. I don't know how she will accept this."
Tony Cagimat said his wife, their children Jesse, 8, Jennifer, 7, Javin, 4 months, father-in-law, mother-in-law Felicidad Dumlao and brother-in-law Larry Dumlao were all at home when the fire broke out.
