MONTANA – Fourteen staff members at a U.S. animal shelter were hospitalized after the FBI used an incinerator at the facility to destroy two pounds of seized methamphetamine.
Staff and roughly 75 cats and dogs were evacuated from the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter in Billings, Montana, when the building filled with smoke.
The incinerator, normally used by animal control officers to dispose of euthanized animals, can also be used by law enforcement to burn seized narcotics, local authorities said. The cats and dogs have been relocated, and those that were most exposed to smoke are now under supervision.
The incident occurred when smoke was pushed in the wrong direction due to negative pressure, according to Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland. Shelter Executive Director Triniti Halverson said she was unaware a drug burn was taking place. “I can firmly and confidently say that, as the Executive Director, I did not know that they were disposing of extremely dangerous narcotics onsite,” she wrote in a statement. “My team and my animals had been confirmed to have been exposed to meth,” she added.
Before evacuating themselves, many employees put on masks and assisted in getting the animals out. Some staff were exposed to smoke for more than an hour, and several began feeling ill. All 14 employees were taken to the emergency room, where they spent about three hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to treat the effects of smoke inhalation. FBI spokesperson Sandra Barker told CBS News that the agency routinely uses outside facilities for controlled drug evidence burns. (BBC)
