5 Kids Sickened By Chemicals At Tampa Pool

TAMPA, FL — An afternoon thunderstorm that broke an electrical breaker is getting the blame for a chemical incident at Calypso Pool in Tampa that sent five children to the hospital on Monday evening.

According to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, a 911 call came in from the 401 E. Bearss Ave. business around 7 p.m. June 26. When first responders arrived, they found five children complaining of stomach discomforts and nausea after leaving the indoor pool area. All five children were taken to a local hospital for evaluation, an email from fire rescue said.

Get the Tampa Patch newsletter and alerts in your inbox.

The venue’s owner told authorities an afternoon thunderstorm had caused a breaker to break on one of the indoor pools. The pump that circulates the pool’s water shut off, but the pump that infuses chemicals continued to run, the email said. The infuser pumped in an estimated 2.5 gallons of mixed chlorine and muriatic acid into a pipe.

“These chemicals stayed stagnant in the pipe until the breaker to the circulating pump was replaced,” the email said. “When the circulating pump kicked back on, it pushed the chemical mix into the pool causing a small cloud of chlorine gas.”

Hazmat crew members were called to the scene to help ventilate the building and test its safety. After the chemicals balanced out and were deemed safe, the building was released back to the owner.

The status of the five children is unclear. A request for information from fire rescue was not immediately responded to.

No further information is available at this time.

Keep up with what’s happening by following Tampa Patch on Facebook.

Image via Shutterstock