Would you believe it?

/ 01 July 2009

Foul office fridge causes a serious stink
Californian office in cleaning catastrophe

Foul office fridge causes a serious stink

We all know the office fridge can be a dangerous place, home to unclaimed pots of yoghurt and packed lunches labelled ‘HANDS OFF!’. But we never knew that a seriously neglected fridge could cause an office evacuation...

An enterprising office worker took it upon herself to clean out the communal fridge at a call centre in California and ended up hospitalising seven of her colleagues with the resulting stench.

Hundreds of staff were evacuated from the AT&T building in San Jose and a hazardous materials (hazmat) team was called to the scene to deal with the aftermath of the botched kitchen cleaning attempt.

The industrious employee in question emptied the contents of the office fridge onto a nearby conference table so she could scour the inside with bleach. Distressed by the odour of mouldy muffins and sour milk, another employee sprayed another chemical cleaner into the air to staunch the stench.

The resulting fumes from the decomposing food and chemical cleaners spread from cubicle to cubicle, causing widespread nausea and vomiting among exposed staff. Meanwhile, the woman cleaning the fridge remained oblivious, as recent surgery for a nasal allergy had rendered her immune to the putrid pong.

‘She said she couldn’t smell a thing,’ said Captain Barry Stallard of the San Jose Fire Department, one of the many officers who attended the scene after suffering staff called in the emergency services.

Specially trained hazmat crews decked out in full body suits evacuated 325 AT&T employees from the building. Paramedics administered medical attention to 28 staff members on site, while seven more were taken to hospital for further treatment.

Captain Stallard speculated that the culprit for causing the stink was once some kind of meat. ‘A steak, a dog and a person, when they all start to rot, it’s a horrible thing,’ he told the Silicon Valley Mercury News.

Employees were allowed back into the office after three hours, with no lasting damage.