The scenes at a California middle school were chaotic late Wednesday morning after as many as 18 students were taken to the hospital amid a "chemical" odor.
Harrowing videos of the scene show several ambulances, fire trucks and police cars surrounding the building as the authorities desperately worked to get to the bottom of the odor.
The first call came in at 11:16 a.m. PDT, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, wrote in an update on its X page. Within minutes, emergency personnel were at Bobby Duke Middle School in Coachella, a small city in Riverside, California, known for the iconic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It's about 133 miles east of Los Angeles.
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Hazmat crews were called to the scene within minutes as it became apparent that whatever was causing the odor also made students, faculty and staff sick. It wasn't immediately clear the nature of the illnesses or what, exactly, was causing the "chemical" odor, though it was presumed to be gas.
In a post timestamped 11:16 a.m. that went live just an hour later at 12:10 p.m., CAL FIRE provided an update to the community, writing, " Firefighters arrived at an educational facility with an unknown chemical leak. Twenty-four classrooms have been isolated. Patients are being evaluated by firefighter paramedics."
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In a second update, the department confirmed that over a dozen students had become ill from whatever was causing the odor. "19 juveniles were evaluated at the scene and 18 were transported to local area hospitals with minor complaints."
The department continued, "The hazardous materials team made entry and was unable to detect any leaks. The incident was turned over to Southwest gas company."
School officials reportedly turned off the gas before CAL FIRE arrived at the scene, KESQ reported. Bobby Duke Middle School serves nearly 700 students and has 31 full-time teachers, according to U.S. News and World Report.
This isn't the first gas leak to occur at the middle school, however. The Desert Sun reported that another leak caused the entire school to evacuate in 2017. In that instance, complaints of a gas-like odor came in early in the morning, with the authorities eventually finding a small leak and plugging it.
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