National Guard Report On Canyon View Middle School Released By School District

The Iron County School District released a report from the Civil Support Team (CST) from the Utah National Guard about their findings at Canyon View Middle School. The CST was requested by the Cedar City Fire Department (CCFD) to assist in the investigation of the incident at the school.

The events were set in motion on Thursday, January 18^th, when during the course of the school day, multiple carbon monoxide (CO) detectors activated in the area of the school known as the “D” hall. That area is adjacent to construction that is underway at CVMS.

On that date, the CCFD did indeed confirm the presence of CO in the area, recording a maximum reading of 6 parts per million (PPM) on a 5-gas detector. This happened with 15 minutes of when the alarms went off.

The school was evacuated and was ventilated over night. On Friday, January 19^th, testing was conducted again by CCFD, and the results were negative. Regular school operations were conducted on Friday.

On Saturday, January 20^th, several basketball games were taking place in the gymnasium. At the time, the HVAC and heat systems were turned off. Multiple attendees and some of the athletes that were playing basketball reported having headaches, nausea and other symptoms during or immediately following the sports activity. Some 47 patients were reported by the Cedar City Hospital. The hospital reported no “unremarkable carboxhemoglobin levels.”

The National Guard CST arrived at CVMS on Sunday, January 21^st at 9 a.m. to conduct extensive testing of the facility. After rigorous testing the CST concluded that “there were no airborne hazards at Canyon View Middle School at the time of our analysis.” The report also indicated that the presence of an airborne hazard that they were not able to detect was “extremely unlikely.”

The report indicated that the incident that set of the detectors on January 18^th was “a transient CO issue in the construction area, but was not at levels that were immediately dangerous to life or health.”