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Eckert Cold Storage 1990 McHenry Ave. Escalon 8/5/99 12:17p Received call from OES regarding a release of fumes at 1990 Mc Henry in Escalon. 1:15p Arrived on site. Spoke with Ed Perez the safety coordinator for the site. He said that they suspect carbon monoxide fumes from the lift trucks caused the workers to get sick.He said that best management practices is to make the building air tight and in that process the ventilation may have not been sufficient for the lift trucks. I asked him if the building had been sealed up.He said that OES gave him permission to enter the building but that the line is down and there is just a cleanup crew inside. He added that an industrial hygienist from Oakland will be on site at 5:00am to check the building for worker occupancy. I asked Mr. Perez for a copy of the CM report. I asked Mr.Perez how many workers got sick.He said 40 workers were taken to area hospitals. I asked him for a list of ill workers and told him that I would have to interview them.Mr. Perez said that would be OK and that he would provide me with an office and an interpreter to conduct the interviews. Spoke with Kasey and we discussed the fact that the building was open. Since the line is down,there is only a cleanup crew inside,that we suspect carbon monoxide and the building had been aired out since the morning that we would not counter what Mr. Perez appeared to have understood what OES gave him permission to do. 8/6/99 9:00a Called Mr. Perez and asked him when we could interview the workers. He said that the line will be down until noon to give the CIH time to evaluate the building and they would start the line up at that time. I asked Mr. Perez if it would be convenient for him if we schedule the interviews for Monday am instead when the workers will begin the shift at 6:00am. Mr.Perez said that would be fine. Discussed with Kasey she suggested that I make a referral to Cal OSHA. Spoke with Jeff Briggs at OES.He said that his air monitoring indicated 2ppm of CO which is background and not enough to indicate CO as the cause of the illness. He also said that Cal OSHA has been in contact with OES this morning. I asked for the contact person at Cal OSHA and he referred me to Mike Parissi. Art Bently got an anonymous call at 9:30 regarding illegal pesticide storage at the site which calls for a routine inspection, OES planned to send an inspector out and refer it to Cal OSHA.Then a call came in over 911 at the site and around 9:40 everyone was called.EHD was supposed to be called around 10:30.