AP, MOUNTAINAIR, New Mexico
Three people are dead and more than a dozen first responders had to be quarantined and assessed on Wednesday for possible exposure to an unidentified substance after being called to a suspected drug overdose at a rural New Mexico home, authorities said.Four people were initially found unresponsive inside the Mountainair home east of Albuquerque, New Mexico State Police said.Three died, while the forth was being treated at an Albuquerque hospital, police said.
New Mexico State Police respond to a home in Mountainair, New Mexico, where authorities say several people died on Wednesday and more than a dozen first responders were exposed to an unknown substance and later treated at a hospital.
Their names were not released.First responders who arrived at the home were exposed to the substance and began experiencing symptoms, including nausea and dizziness, authorities said.
Antonette Alguire, a volunteer firefighter in Mountainair, helped perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a woman outside the home and watched as other first responders and firefighters started coughing, vomiting and becoming dizzy at the heliport, she said.Alguire said the experience was scary, even though she did not go inside and did not experience any symptoms.She said that first responders might have to do more to protect themselves.“It’s getting to that point where we just have to live in fear, even saving lives,” she said.Investigators are working to identify the substance.Mountainair Mayor Peter Nieto said he saw drugs at the scene and pointed to that as a possible factor in the deaths.The health issues people experienced were not related to carbon monoxide or natural gas exposure, he said.New Mexico State Police said there was no threat to the public.“At this time, investigators believe the substance may be transmitted through contact and do not believe it to be airborne,” Officer Wilson Silver said.Nearly two dozen people were assessed and decontaminated after being exposed to the substance, the University of New Mexico Hospital said.Most of them were first responders who were showing no symptoms and later were discharged, hospital officials said.Three symptomatic people were being monitored on Wednesday evening, the hospital said.
