5 Workers At UES' JoJo Sick After Carbon Monoxide Leak, FDNY Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Five employees at Upper East Side restaurant JoJo were sent to the hospital Tuesday night after a carbon monoxide leak broke out in the business' basement, fire officials said.

Star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurant, located in a townhouse on East 64th Street near Lexington Avenue, was evacuated around 11 p.m. Tuesday when an oil burner malfunctioned, fire officials said. Five restaurant workers became sick during the carbon monoxide leak and were sent to area hospitals, but are expected to be fine, an FDNY spokesman said.

"We discovered the oil burner was not working properly. It was giving off high levels of CO throughout the basement," FDNY Chief Mark Rosenbaum told the New York Post. "There was no extension – it didn’t leave the basement."

Residents of apartments above the French restaurant also had to be evacuated, fire officials said. People were allowed back inside the building around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, an FDNY spokesman said.

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