Coughing, bloody noses and vomiting as chlorine sickens 50 at Utah pool, cops say

Martha Vickers realized something was wrong when she checked on her 2-year-old nephew at a public pool in Utah on Tuesday, KSL reported.

“I just turned around and saw some bubbling from the pool — some yellow bubbling — and I knew it wasn’t good,” Vickers said, according to the station. “We just grabbed the kids and ran.”

A chlorine overflow sickened 50 people — mostly children — at Veterans Memorial Pool in Pleasant Grove, the Daily Herald reported.

Swimmers exposed to the poison gas suffered breathing problems, coughing, bloody noses, nausea, vomiting and loss of consciousness, KSTU reported.

Pool visitors described a chaotic scene as people fled the potentially deadly gas about 5 p.m. Tuesday.

“We just saw lots of kids outside, nervous, crying, looking for their parents, trying to figure out what’s going on, and a lot of kids coughing,” Marie Stott, a mother of kids exposed to the chlorine, told KTVX.

Dozens of people were treated at local hospitals, though police say no lives appear to be in danger, KSL reported. But an American Fork Hospital emergency room doctor said some patients could face chronic breathing issues.

“The more serious patients have some wheezing and then even more serious that their oxygen numbers drop and they require oxygen, then require breathing treatments,” said Dr. Nathan Miller, according to the station. “Essentially, it would be like a severe asthma attack where they could potentially suffocate.”

Capt. Britt Smith of the Pleasant Grove Police Department said a pump at the swimming pool malfunctioned, pouring an overload of chlorine into the water, the Daily Herald reported.

“The chlorine went into the water, and then it became in a gaseous state and it became airborne,” Smith said, KSTU reported.

The pool will remain closed while the malfunctioning pump is repaired, the Daily Herald reported. Police do not suspect foul play.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened on the first nice day of summer break,” Smith said, KTVX reported.

While today commonly used to kill harmful bacteria in drinking water and swimming pools, chlorine gas was used as a weapon in World War I, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

This story was originally published June 5, 2019 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Coughing, bloody noses and vomiting as chlorine sickens 50 at Utah pool, cops say."