NEW YORK - At least 34 tenants of a Manhattan high-rise building were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning Tuesday morning.
The city fire department says crews were called around 8:30 a.m. to the 12-story building located at 60 Murray Street near West Broadway in TriBeCa.
Officials at the scene tell NY1 the high CO levels resulted from a broken boiler pipe in the basement of the building which also houses an Amish Market on the ground floor.
Fire officials say the high carbon monoxide levels were detected inside the ground floor market and above floors which include a gym and more than a hundred residential units.
Firefighters cordoned off the area and inspected neighboring buildings for carbon monoxide as well, though no others were evacuated.
The incident was originally thought to be related to a box of salad bowls that was being treated as a suspicous package, but investigators later determined that was not the case.
"It seems that we had a defective boiler with a broken flue pipe that produced high amounts of CO, which hurt and injured people that were working in the restaurant," said FDNY Chief of Department James Leonard.
"A male worker was opening up the box, and about 10 feet away there was a female worker by the bathroom that fainted, and he associated her fainting with the opening of that box, not knowing that it was actually carbon monoxide," said NYPD Chief of Department William Aubrey.
None of the injuries are said to be life threatening, though two patients are listed as serious.
Fire crews say the broken pipe that was the source of the CO leak has been capped off.