Fourteen kitchen staff and waiters were hospitalised, three in critical condition and others briefly, after they inhaled carbon monoxide at a wedding reception on Saturday evening.
Nine of the 14 were released following a check-up but the other five were kept for observation and even placed in the hyperbaric unit – a chamber usually used for divers but which in cases like this help increase a patients’ blood oxygen levels.
However, the condition of all five had improved by yesterday afternoon and they are expected to be discharged today.
Sources said the incident took place half way through a 350-guest wedding at the Montekristo Estates in Ħal Farruġ. The reception was being held outdoors and strong winds caused the organisers to move the cooking equipment inside.
A room not normally used for food preparation was turned into a temporary kitchen, with the caterers moving in with an industrial oven and two fryers.
But the room filled with poisonous carbon monoxide gas which is believed to have got trapped in the room’s vaulted ceiling. About four hours after cooking began, some of the kitchen staff and waiters started to feel faint and three of them collapsed.
The first sign that something was not right came when a waitress complained she was feeling faint, just after emerging from the kitchen with a tray in her hand, and collapsed.
“People thought it was her blood pressure so a doctor who was among the guests came over to examine her.
But while he was checking her, another waiter collapsed which made them think it was more than a drop in blood pressure,” said a colleague who was mildly affected.
Another doctor stepped in and they coordinated the first aid as yet another waiter collapsed and the others started to feel similar symptoms.
The police said the three people who fainted (a man and a woman, both 18, and a 43-year-old man) were critical for a while but by yesterday afternoon their condition had improved.
All of the employees on site were taken to hospital as a precaution.
Despite the mayhem in the kitchen, the wedding went ahead as other waiters from a function in another part of the estate were brought over to help serve the food.
However, a pizzeria which forms part of the complex was evacuated as a precaution.
Members of the Civil Protection Department were also on site, looking for gas leaks. They later gave the venue the all-clear for two functions held there yesterday.
Duty magistrate Miriam Hayman appointed several court experts to assist in an inquiry and the incident is also being investigated by the police led by Police Inspector Joseph Agius.