FOUR Singapore Airlines staff who fell ill at a hotel in San
Francisco last Thursday may have suffered from carbon monoxide
exposure, a city fire official said.
The quartet, who stayed in separate hotel rooms at the San
Francisco Marriott Marquis, began complaining of flu-like symptoms
late on Thursday and were rushed to the hospital.
Three of them were released and returned to the hotel early last
Friday, a hotel spokesman said. The fourth was expected to be
released later.
The poisonous gas may have been released from a nearby
restaurant's recently repaired heater and sucked into the hotel's
air intake system, said Lt Mindy Talmadge a fire department
spokesman.
That same heater may have sickened two other guests staying in
the same two hotel rooms last Tuesday, Lt Talmadge said.
'That's what we're looking at right now,' said Lt Talmadge,
adding that the carbon monoxide levels in those rooms dropped
dramatically when firefighters shut off the heater on Friday. The
restaurant is temporarily closed, Lt Talmadge added.
-- AP