The Oxford Suites was evacuated Sunday morning for a Haz-Mat investigation
SPOKANE VALLEY,
Wash. - Firefighters responded to a Haz-Mat call to a Spokane Valley hotel
Sunday afternoon after receiving multiple complaints of some sort of irritant.
When the first
engine arrived they saw multiple people affected and called for more engines.
Not knowing what they were dealing with, firefighters cautiously began their
investigation. A short time later they were able to determine that a cleaning
lady found some pepper spray or bear mace in the garbage of one of the rooms and
may have accidentally dispensed the spray. Other people throwing garbage away
stirred up the mace and it ended up spreading through the hotel.
The hotel was
evacuated and firefighters checked out 9-10 people complaining of symptoms, but
no one was taken to the hospital.
The hotel is back to
normal operations.