For the poisoning that affected twenty-two children and six adults at Kogenheim primary school, Thursday, January 28, the carbon monoxide hypothesis is not confirmed. New tests will be carried out this Friday 29 at the beginning of the afternoon.
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The mayor of Kogenheim, Guillaume Forgiarini, was informed Thursday, January 28 around 3 p.m. that a dozen students from the nursery and primary school René Cassin complained of headaches and stomach aches. Suspecting carbon monoxide poisoning, he immediately alerted the firefighters and evacuated the 148 people, children and members of the teaching staff, present at the scene.
Upon their arrival, the Benfeld and Sélestat firefighters “quickly did tests “ says the mayor, who wishes to underline the “very good organization” emergency services, including the Strasbourg SMUR. Most of the children had returned home immediately, but those who were not feeling well were called back. After being placed on oxygen, twenty-two children and six adults were evacuated to the main hospitals in the region, Haguenau, Strasbourg, Sélestat, Colmar and Mulhouse.
But at the hospital, tests could not clearly determine whether there really had been carbon monoxide poisoning. Quickly, the condition of the victims was no longer cause for concern, and they were able to return home. “Everyone I spoke to on the phone came home last night” confirms Guillaume Forgiarini.
René Cassin school is located at 160 route du Rhin in Kogenheim
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At school, the firefighters from Benfeld and Sélestat stayed until around 12:30 a.m. At the height of the intervention, 41 firefighters and around twenty devices were mobilized. But the real cause of the poisoning has not yet been established. Because even if the symptoms suffered by the victims made one think, logically, of an origin due to carbon monoxide, the configuration of the place partially contradicts this hypothesis.
Indeed, the school consists of a new building, and an old rehabilitated building. Gold, “the first cases were declared in the old building, and the others in the new” specifies the mayor, Guillaume Forgiarini. But the latter “is not equipped with a boiler, only a double flow CMV”, and the two buildings are separate, “and only connected by hot water pipes.”
A priori, the idea of food poisoning can also be ruled out. “Among the ten students mainly affected, five ate extracurricular and five at home” specifies the mayor.
For the moment, all the hypotheses remain open: “maybe another kind of gas, or something fallen from the sky” suggests the mayor who would have “preferred to immediately find the source “ rather than stay with that uncertainty.
The ARS (regional health agency) was seized of the case, and the school remains confined until further notice. New tests will be carried out this Friday, January 29 at the very beginning of the afternoon, in the hope of finally being able to find a logical explanation for this very strange intoxication.
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