5, including 2 children, taken to hospital after carbon monoxide leak at downtown hotel

ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) - A carbon monoxide leak at a high-rise hotel in downtown Atlanta is being investigated after several people were sent to the hospital Friday morning.

Atlanta Fire Rescue Department responded to the Residence Inn Atlanta Downtown at about 8:30 a.m. where they detected high levels of carbon monoxide inside the hotel.

The hotel consists of 20 floors and 160 rooms. Officials said 100 of those rooms were occupied at the time of the call.

According to Atlanta Fire, five people, including three adults and two children, were taken to the hospital for observation. Fire crews believe one person might have been unconscious at the time they were transported.

Fire officials said the children couldn’t be woken up, which prompted the 911 call.

Fire crews helped evacuate the hotel within an hour of their arrival.

“Our hazmat team is assisting residents experiencing side effects and working with hotel maintenance to locate the source,” Atlanta Fire Rescue said in a statement.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority has provided a bus to shelter hotel occupants and keep them warm until the matter is resolved.

“Right now, we’ve got the entire building opened up as best we can from the ground floor to the roof. We’ve got fans to try to make sure that we have any residual carbon monoxide in the building completely out. We’ve got the gas shut off to the building and once we go in and confirm that we’re back to normal readings in the building we’ll turn it back over,” Assistant Fire Chief Greg Gray said.