FROM THE TINA FILES: A cloud of smoke from two pounds of methamphetamine seized by the FBI and incinerated inside a Montana animal shelter sent its workers to the hospital, city officials in Billings said. The smoke started to fill the building during a drug burn on Wednesday, apparently because of negative pressure that sucked it back inside, Billings Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland said Friday.
A fan was supposed to be on hand in such situations to reverse the pressure so smoke would flow out of the building, but Iffland said it wasn’t readily available…
The incinerator is used primarily to burn carcasses of animals euthanized or collected by the city’s animal control division. But every couple of months local law enforcement or FBI agents use it to burn seized narcotics, Iffland said.
Fourteen workers from the nonprofit Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter evacuated and went to the hospital. The shelter’s 75 dogs and cats were relocated or put into foster homes, said Iffland and shelter director Triniti Halverson.
The shelter shares space with Billings’ animal control division. When smoke started filling parts of the building, Halverson assumed it was from burning carcasses because she said they had never known about the drug burns.
Halverson said she had a very intense headache and sore throat, and others had dizziness, sweating and coughing.
“Not a party,” she said.
The workers found out it was methamphetamine smoke through a call from a city official while they were the hospital, Halverson said. Most of the staff spent several hours in an oxygen chamber for treatment. Symptoms have lingered for some workers, Halverson said.
FOURTEEN TEENA-ED OUT staff and 75 tweaking dogs and cats! Oooh, gurl! The blue LED lightstrips were-a-glowing from the windows of Billings, Montana that night. The importance of remember the fan! Interesting that Halverson had to make very clear that it “was NOT a party.” Sounds like it might have been.
The burning meth smoke would coat all the surfaces and contents of the building and would turn it into a hazardous waste site, and everything would need to be decontaminated before people and animals can return. Way to go!