On Monday, May 11 five employees at a local company in the 19800 block of 84 Ave. S. in Kent were sent to local hospitals for treatment following exposure to a possible airborne chemical.

The Kent Fire Department RFA was dispatched to the call at 9:04 am, after the employees reported to the company’s nurse station complaining of shortness of breath and dizziness.

All the employees worked in the same area of the building.

One other person was treated at the property for a medical issue unrelated to the haz mat incident.

The call was upgraded to include hazardous materials teams from not only Kent but from throughout south King County.

This type of response is normal and necessary in order to have the number of hazardous materials technicians needed to investigate and mitigate a chemical problem on scene.

A team sent in to determine what took place was unable to find any obvious problem. The building was ventilated to remove any remaining airborne chemicals.

It will be up to the company to investigate what was happening at the time of the incident and to take any measures necessary to prevent it from happening in the future.

At no time was anyone outside the building in any danger.