O.P. Bagel Shop Evacuated

A potentially deadly situation leads to the evacuation of an Orchard Park restaurant.

One by one, diners fell ill while visiting a southtowns restaurant Sunday morning.

Manhattan Bagel Manager, Charlayne Scherer said, "Everybody was dropping so quickly and we didn't know why. We couldn't explain why."

And now authorities know that carbon monoxide is to blame.

It started around 7 a.m. Sunday morning with the first case involving an employee at a Manhattan Bagel in Orchard Park.

Orchard Park Fire Chief, Guy Carrey said, "But they thought it was just because of the sweating and that, that she was basically flu-like. Now come to realize that the rest of the employees, when they started getting violently ill, that it was the CO situation."

In the end, at least five employees were taken to the hospital because they were sick, and several customers were checked out as well for possible CO poisoning.

"We got a high reading of between 80 to 90, which anything above 10 is in the danger mark," Carrey explained.

Charlayne stated, "She went out on a stretcher with an air tank and stuff."

Charlayne wasn't working Sunday morning, but she was on Saturday and was sick.

She exclaimed, "I just thought I had a migraine headache and had my husband comoe pick me up, just thinking it was a migraine. Then after that, I heard two of my staff members went home with headaches, but still didn't put it together that there was something wrong with the air."

Dawn Sullivan was there at the time.

"I'm inside 1/2 hour, but I feel fine," she remarked.

The two other businesses in the building had high readings as well.

The salon owner didn't want to appear on camera but she says she was here all day Saturday but had the back and front door of the salon open, which may have been why no one in there was sick.

Those taken to the hospital are expected to be okay.

Any questions should be referred to the Orchard Park Fire Company Chief, Guy Carrey at 662-5774.

The Colonial Laundromat's Attorney says the source of the carbon monoxide posioning at Manhattan Bagel was caused by a defective heat exchanger on the roof of Manhattan Bagel, which services only Manhattan Bagel.