Cops: 8 people sickened by gas leak at Plainview restaurant
Quick Summary
Several people lost consciousness and eight people were taken to hospitals after falling ill from carbon monoxide poisoning at a Plainview shish kebab restaurant Monday night, police said.
Photo credit: Joel Cairo | Employees wait outside while emergency personnel check the building after people were passing out at a Plainview restaurant on Monday. (Nov. 9, 2009)
Several people lost consciousness and eight people were taken to hospitals after falling ill from carbon monoxide poisoning at a Plainview shish kebab restaurant Monday night, police said.
The effects of the gas at Ayhan's Shish Kebab Restaurant were not considered to be life-threatening, police said.
Calls came in to police at 8:38 p.m. saying that people were passing out inside the 379 S. Oyster Bay Rd. restaurant.
A police news release did not say whether those sickened were customers, workers or both. The Nassau police public information office said Tuesday that the case file did not contain that information.
Second Precinct officers responded to the emergency and evacuated the restaurant. Fire departments from Syosset, Plainview and Hicksville went to the restaurant to help, and the Syosset department found carbon monoxide in the air at the restaurant, police said.
KeySpan and the Nassau County Health Department shut off the gas, but they did not immediately find the source of the leak, police said.
Of the eight sickened, two were taken to Nassau University Medical Center, three to Plainview Hospital and three to Syosset Hospital. Three more people declined to seek medical attention.
The Ayhan's restaurant chain, which describes its cuisine as Mediterranean, has locations in Baldwin, Port Washington, Westbury, Plainview and Rockville Centre.
