35 treated for A release of pepper spray in the Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki this morning sent 32 guests and 3 hotel employees to area hospitals for treatment of watery eyes and scratchy throats.
pepper spray risk
in Waikiki
32 Moana Surfrider guests are
treated at Queen's and StraubBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comThe incident also forced police to close all but one lane on Kalakaua Avenue fronting the hotel for nearly two hours.
Guests from two rooms on the ninth floor of the hotel's Tower Wing called security between 4 and 4:30 a.m., complaining of a strange odor.
"So we had a security officer respond to the scene, went upstairs, couldn't identify the odor, but brought the guests down. A total of five people were occupying the rooms," said Erica Neves, hotel spokeswoman.
Hotel security called the Honolulu Fire Department, which dispatched one of its hazardous-materials teams.
Hotel officials also called all the guests on the ninth floor of the tower wing. Those who felt they were affected by the odor were told to go to the lobby and those who felt they were not affected were told to stay in the rooms, said Neves.
Four Hawaii residents from one of the rooms on the ninth floor were the only guests who chose to stay, Neves said.
Firefighters from the HAZMAT team quickly identified the odor as pepper spray. They did a check of all the rooms except the one where the Hawaii residents were, but could not find the source, said Capt. Richard Soo, HFD spokesman.
Twenty-six hotel guests were taken to The Queen's Medical Center starting about 6:30 a.m., a hospital spokesperson said. They were complaining chiefly of eye irritation and were being treated and released.
Nine, including a security guard, were treated and released from Straub Clinic & Hospital.
This is at least the fourth incident in two weeks in which firefighters had to evacuate people from a building because of a gas or odor.
Star-Bulletin reporter Helen Altonn
contributed to this report.