Hazmat Team Examines Staten Island Park After Reports Of Sickening Odor
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- At least one person and one pet got sick after inhaling an odd odor in a Staten Island park Monday.
As CBS 2's Elise Finch reported, helicopters and an army of emergency vehicles converged on the Ashford Avenue entrance to a Staten Island hiking trail.
"It's a little path, hiking trail," Nicholas Dib, of Staten Island, described. "I think it's part of the Greenbelt. It leads over to Willowbrook Park."
Crews arrived shortly before 1 p.m. after receiving reports that something in a stream along the hiking trail was making people and their pets sick.
"I understand some people walk their dogs in that trail and the dogs got violently sick," said Jeanette Rabinowitz, of Staten Island. "And they called the Parks Department, and one of the gentlemen from the Parks Department came, and he walked there and he felt sick."
A Fire Department spokesperson told CBS 2 the Parks Department employee was taken to Richmond University Medical Center in stable condition. The man reportedly got dizzy after smelling the water in the small stream.
The employee was later released.
An FDNY hazmat crew took water, air and soil samples from the area. They all came back negative for any toxins, CBS 2 reported. Subsequent additional tests also came back negative.
Police removed tape blocking the entrance to the trail Monday afternoon.
An NYPD spokesperson told CBS 2 the Department of Environmental Protection is conducting additional tests.
"You don't know what's in there," one woman said. "I'd be afraid, quite frankly."
"I hope to God that it's not dangerous because it's right across the street from my window," Rabinowitz said.
A parks department spokesperson said Greenbelt's White Trail remains closed while further water testing is being conducted.
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