Small Gas Leak Cause of Old Federal Building Shutdown

Two employees had high levels of carbon monoxide in their system.

It was announced on Thursday that the Old Federal Building on Main Street in Harrison would be shut down until an unspecified repair could be made. More information has now come to light regarding the cause of the shutdown.

An email from the Boone County Judges Office said a broken regulator was found to be giving off a small amount of gas. As a precaution the building has been closed until the regulator can be fixed, hopefully early next week.

The email said, “We had two employees in that building tell us that they smelled an odor and they felt sick. We told their supervisor to send them to the doctor immediately to be checked out just to be on the safe side.

We removed all employees from the building and called Black Hills Energy to come out. We also had the fire department check to make sure the odor was not an issue with the electric. No electrical issues were found.

The Black Hills Energy technician came in and checked the entire building- from the basement all the way to the top floor. He told us that no carbon monoxide was detected.”

The message went on to say that faulty regulator was shut off but the two employees that felt sick both reported back to the judge’s office that they a doctor had confirmed a high level of carbon monoxide in their system.

For safety of employees the building is going to remain closed until the repairs can be made and the building can be checked for carbon monoxide again.