Three children were hospitalized and 15 others were evaluated for their symptoms on Wednesday, July 17, after a chemical odor in a swimming pool sickened participants in a city-sponsored day camp at Ysmael Villegas Park in Riverside, the Riverside Fire Department said.
There were 79 people, including 53 children, in the pool at about 2:40 p.m. when the water bubbled up at one end and swimmers noticed the odor, said Capt. Paul Seawright, a Fire Department spokesman. The initial report was that one person was “overcome” by the odor, Seawright said. The children primarily suffered from coughs, he said.
Everyone then left the pool and employees shut off the water pumps.
The circumstances prompted a large public safety response to the Casa Blanca neighborhood that included the city’s hazardous materials team and five ambulances. By the time firefighters arrived, Seawright said, the odor could not be detected by them or their air monitors. The investigation into the source of the odor will continue, he said.
Marvin Aguilar said he received a call from the city to pick up his daughter Keelannah, 11, from the Summer Splash Day Camp because of a problem with the pool that made some children sick. The camp operates five days a week for two hours at different sites and offers swimming, arts and crafts and other activities.
Parents arrived and signed out their children.
“I was underwater and my throat started burning,” Keelannah said. “I came up and others were coughing and I started coughing.”
Medics checked her vital signs and gave her water, she said.
Aguilar said the city urged parents to take their children to urgent care, but he wasn’t sure whether they would go.
“I feel a lot better,” Keelannah said.
