The St. Louis Public Library's downtown main facility served as a temporary sick bay and haven from the cold and rain for 500 people evacuated from a building across the street November 2.
Employees in the Farm Credit Bank Building, which houses the Trans World Airlines reservations center and other businesses, began feeling sick around 8:30 a.m. after a mystery odor circulated through the building. Paramedics treated about 25 people with oxygen and took eight people to the hospital for observation.
Gerald Brooks, the library's director of marketing and community relations, told American Libraries there was little disruption of service since the incident took place before the library opened at 10 a.m.
As of November 4 fire department investigators still hadn't determined the cause of the odor, although they suspect carbon monoxide may have gotten into the building's ventilation system from trucks backed up to the loading dock.
Posted November 9, 1998.