Oorah Camp Staff Discharged From Hospital After Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Dozens of young men sent to local hospitals after a carbon monoxide leak at Oorah Boys Zone have been discharged and are doing well, camp operators said.

Fifty-three members of the staff and the program for college students were hospitalized Thursday after what authorities believe was a leaky gas pipe sickened them. The boys, ranging in age from teens to early 20s, were reported unconscious, Steve Hood, director of Delaware County Emergency Services, told the Daily Star of Oneonta. No younger campers were affected.

An initial investigation found that the carbon monoxide originated from a propane hot water heater vented into the attic of a bunkhouse.

“We are immensely thankful that all those who were hospitalized for monitoring were discharged yesterday and are doing fine,” camp office manager Tova Bracha Kohanghadosh wrote in an email Friday.

She said the leak was confined to one building and the rest of camp was up and running as usual Thursday.