Rotten Lunch: Stinky Fridge Sickens 28 in Calif. Office

Office complex evacuated after fridge cleanup backfires
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 13, 2009 1:56 AM CDT
Rotten Lunch: Stinky Fridge Sickens 28 in Calif. Office
Emergency teams in San Jose sent to an evacuated office complex tracked fumes to a fridge.   (Shutter Stock)

An incredibly foul stench from long-forgotten lunches forced hundreds of people out of a California office complex yesterday, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Fire crews and a hazmat team were dispatched to the building and 28 people were treated for vomiting and nausea. San Jose emergency workers traced the smell to a room where a worker—who lost her sense of smell after nasal surgery—was using a combination of chemicals to clean rotten food out of a fridge.
(More refrigerator stories.)

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