Fumes at Southampton campus investigated

The source of a Friday chemical leak at Stony Brook Southampton that sent two university police officers to the hospital was still under investigation, fire and school officials said.

Fumes from the Southampton Marine Station, a Stony Brook Southampton facility just off the main campus, sickened the two officers as they responded to an alarm sometime after 3:40 a.m., according to the Southampton Fire Department.

Capt. Chris Brenner, a fire department spokesman, said the fumes were first thought to be chlorine.

As of late Friday afternoon, investigators had left the scene but had not determined the contents or cause of the leak, said Stony Brook spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow. However, the university director of emergency management, who also went to the scene, confirmed the leak was not chlorine-based, Sheprow said. She added that chlorine is not stored in the building.

Still, Brenner said, one of the university officers who entered the building smelled what he thought was chlorine. He "got ill, but managed to get out of the building," Brenner said.

Both officers were given oxygen at the scene and then treated and released from Southampton Hospital. No buildings were evacuated and the leak is not considered a threat to the community, Brenner said.

The Marine Station is on Little Neck Road, south of Montauk Highway, County Road 80, on Old Fort Pond.

Four fire departments, three emergency services units and four hazmat teams, as well as technicians from Brookhaven National Laboratory, went to the station, officials said.

With Gary Dymski