A group of 14 children and seven adults were evacuated from a Lompoc-area summer day camp on Friday morning after being overcome by a mysterious fog.
Santa Barbara County firefighters were not able to detect anything at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, located at 2800 Harris Grade Road, where the children said that an unknown substance had caused them to cough and irritated their throats.
When emergency crews arrived at about 8:15 a.m., several children and counselors at the camp were exhibiting symptoms caused by what emergency officials are calling "transient migrating odors."
Five children received bottled oxygen at the scene.
According to Capt. Charlie Johnson, spokesman for the county Fire Department, the smell could have been from manure or pesticides that had travelled in the air from farms in the area.
Capt. Johnson said that both county and city of Lompoc fire crews responded, as well as personnel from the Sheriffs department and traffic control.
Also, a county hazardous materials team arrived to investigate the possibility of chemical exposure.
After a series of tests, however, nothing toxic was detected.
"We believe that it was the damp smell of the fog that rolled into the area possibly carrying something from the fields here that were perhaps just recently sprayed," said Capt. Johnson.
"We also had county hazmat come out and they confirmed that nothing was detectable and everyone who was treated were allowed back into the building about an hour later."
The church's pastor, Richard Reynolds, said that the county Fire Department used large industrial fans to blow out the smoky substance from the building.
"Everything seems to be fine now, but earlier, some of the children were complaining of having sore throats and coughing. There was a fog or some sort of smoke located in the stairwell of the church . . . no one really knew what it was," the Rev. Reynolds explained. "We evacuated the children and the counselors out shortly after 8 o'clock and the fire department arrived at about 8:15."
