Medical Building Reopened After Unknown Chemical Hospitalizes 2

A Morris Township medical building was evacuated for about five hours and two people were hospitalized Tuesday after employees and patients experienced respiratory and breathing issues from an unknown airborne chemical.

Two people were taken to Morristown Medical Center with respiratory difficulties, treated and released Tuesday night, according to Jeffrey Paul, director of the Morris County Office of Emergency Management. Seven others were treated at the scene.


The Morris County Hazardous Materials Team and the Morris Township Fire Department completed their last assessments of the building at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, Paul said.

Morris Township Fire Chief Scott Lovenberg deemed the building safe and authorized its re-opening, Paul said. Units began clearing the scene at about 10:30 p.m.

The three-story medical building at 261 James St. was evacuated at about 5 p.m. Tuesday after people inside experienced breathing and speaking difficulties and well as severe coughing and burning and watering eyes, according to Morristown Green.

It was not immediately known if work done earlier in the day to the heating and ventilation system was related to the incident, according to NJ.com.

There were no signs of anything unusual during the firefighters' first two sweeps of the building, but the Morris Hazmat squad found "minor problems within the building" during a third sweep, Lovenberg told NJ.com.

"The meters picked up something," Lovenberg said.