By Steve Neavling
Fourteen employees at a Billings, Mont., animal shelter were hospitalized last week after methamphetamine destroyed by the FBI in a nearby incinerator sent smoke into the building, sickening staff and forcing the evacuation of dozens of cats and dogs.
Triniti Halverson, executive director of the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter, said she and her staff were caught off guard when smoke began filling the facility Wednesday, The New York Times reports.
“We had heard through the grapevine that they burned what they called ‘evidence’ there,” she said. “It was never confirmed that they burn narcotics or dangerous drugs, until I was sitting in the hospital Wednesday.”
Halverson said she and 13 employees were treated for smoke inhalation, each spending three hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
“Workers who were exposed for an hour while they evacuated animals were sweaty and dizzy, and some have had residual headaches,” she said.
Three staffers later required follow-up treatment.
The shelter moved most animals into foster care. Four litters of kittens that had been in the smokiest area remain under treatment.
“We’re keeping them under close watch, but they’re struggling with respiratory symptoms and goopy eyes,” Halverson said. “Animals are resilient, so hopefully we can get them to bounce back.”
Billings police confirmed the FBI was burning methamphetamine in the city-owned incinerator, which is normally used to dispose of euthanized animals. The department said a “negative pressure issue” pushed smoke into the shelter but added that “the FBI and local law enforcement routinely use outside facilities to conduct controlled drug evidence burns.”
Halverson said decontamination crews have warned it could be weeks before the shelter reopens.
“We are scared. We are heartbroken,” she said. “But we also feel the love and support of our community, and for that we are deeply grateful.”
