Eight employees at a cold-storage warehouse in Riverside were hospitalized Friday morning, April 11, after a malfunction in a refrigeration system sent the smell of ammonia into the building, authorities said.
Nine others at Lineage Integrated Solutions at 1001 Columbia Ave. reported exposure to the ammonia just before 6 a.m., the Riverside Fire Department said. All 17 were expected to recover, a news release said.
Their injuries were not described, but typical symptoms of exposure to ammonia include breathing difficulties and eye and nose irritation.
Nicholas Crain, a spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health’s hazardous materials unit, said a check valve on the roof unit wore out, and an evaporator blasted air with the ammonia into the warehouse.
The amount of ammonia was at a low level, Crain said.
Lineage’s maintenance contractor fixed the leak, Crain said.
No firefighters were reported injured.
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