Captain David Tallent with the Chattanooga Fire Department holds up two moldy bananas, which were believed to be the source of the offending odor.
photo by Bruce Garner
Chattanooga firefighters and haz-mat personnel responded to Memorial Hospital on Thursday, concerned about a possible haz-mat incident. The incident started Thursday morning when the employees in the mailroom noticed a "musty odor" as they sorted through the daily mail. One of the employees started complaining of a sore throat, and, before long, six employees were making the same complaint.
Hospital staff, including the hospital's own crisis management team, sprang into action. The employees were immediately sent to the emergency room for assessment, and they were isolated from everyone else. The crisis team also called for the fire department and activated its emergency command center in the hospital.
The Chattanooga Fire Department received the alarm at 11:46 a.m. and responded with several fire companies and the haz-mat team. A command post was set up outside the hospital and communications was established with the hospital's command staff.
After suiting up in protective haz-mat gear, Battalion Chief Winston Shields said haz-mat personnel searched the mailroom, including scores of individual letters and packages, but did not find any suspicious fluids or powders. A second search through all the mail produced the same results.
U.S. Postal Inspector Michael Iorio arrived on the scene and went in the mailroom with Tactical Services Captain David Tallent to conduct a third and final search. After searching all of the mail and mail trays one last time, Mr. Iorio glanced in a trash can. He found two, old, moldy bananas, and when he raised them to his nose, detected a very musty odor.
All involved with the investigation agreed that there was no other logical source for the odor, so the incident was declared over.
The whole incident appeared to be much ado about nothing, but Captain Tallent pointed out that the hospital staff acted "very swiftly and appropriately in taking the situation seriously." Fortunately, the moldy bananas did nothing more than provide the hospital staff, and the fire department, with an excellent training opportunity, and Captain Tallent said they all passed with flying colors.