Ten firefighters were transported to the hospital, three of whom were administered naloxone, after becoming ill while at the scene of a house fire Wednesday afternoon on Webster Road in the town of Portland.
All of the first responders have since been released and are recovering at home, Portland Fire Chief David McIntyre said. In his decades of fire service, McIntyre said he’s never come across a situation in which so many firefighters have been stricken with illness at one time. He said there are “rumors and guesses” as to what the firefighters were exposed to while battling the remnants of the blaze, but nothing has been made official.
Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone on Wednesday confirmed several firefighters had been “overcome with fumes” while at the scene. The firefighters were transported to hospitals in Westfield and Dunkirk.