Heat Exhaustion: 9 Students Hospitalized After Power Outage
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CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) -- For a second day, Coral Springs high school students were rolled out on gurneys and taken away in ambulances.
"There was kids passing out, like it was bad," said junior Emily Santos."And it was the same thing yesterday, kids were passing out, and we couldn't go inside again so it was bad."
A concert on the school football field Thursday led to overheated youngsters resulting in 14 patients treated on scene and three were taken to hospitals for heat exhaustion. Luck is not on this school's side.
Friday morning hey faced some major power trouble.
"The lights just start going off and on, we continue doing our thing, taking our quiz and then next thing you know the fire alarm goes off. So everyone had to evacuate the building," said senior, Walt Rodriguez.
Fire investigators say a power surge at the school caused electrical equipment to overheat in an elevator and the cafeteria.
"There was like smokes in the hall so they didn't want us in the building," said senior Oscar Oliver.
The students spent the next two hours on the football field in 85 to 88 degree weather. Coral Springs Fire Rescue transported nine students to area hospital for heat exhaustion, and attended to 11 others on the scene.
"I honestly couldn't think cuz I was about to pass out. I'm over here wearing a jacket, I can't take it off, it's black, there was no water, it was so bad," said Santos.
Broward Schools says it did send extra water, to beef up the school's supply. But students say water was a source of contention in the crowd.
"Not enough water for everyone and it's hot out here, everyone was like crowded in the concession stand trying to get water, and then a fight went off," said Rodriguez.
They say a heated argument over water sparked a fistfight that was caught on cell phone video between two students in the middle of the evacuation.
"There was a couple of kids fighting over water bottles because there wasn't enough water for everybody. So It was pretty bad, people were bleeding, people were getting arrested," said Santos.
Coral Springs police briefly detained the two young men, but is letting the school handle their discipline.
While both heat-fueled incidents left many students fuming.
"The school is like unorganized," said Santos.
Firefighters say it was handled how it needed to be handled.
"If the power were to go out tomorrow, and the kids were to be evacuated we would have to do the same thing," said Coral Springs Fire
Division Chief Mike Moser.
School is scheduled to resume at normal time Monday.