5 Workers Overcome by Fumes at Unocal Refinery

Five workers were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes Monday while working on an 80-foot-high converter at the Unocal refinery in Wilmington, authorities said. None of the workers suffered serious effects.

The workers, all employees of an outside contractor, apparently inhaled the fumes from a nearby heater exhaust that was blown in their direction by a gust of wind, said Unocal spokesman Jeff Callender.

City Fire Department spokesman Pat Marek said three of the men reported feeling faint, but Callender said all were able to climb down under their own power from the 80-foot-high ironwork structure, which breaks down oil into high-grade gasoline.

Paramedics took the men to Bay Harbor Hospital, where all were undergoing chest X-rays and other tests, but none of them was expected to be admitted.