Cathleen Allison/Nevada AppealCarson City Fire Departement Battalion Chief Dan Shirey, center, talks with city, school and EPA officials Wednesday afternoon following a mercury spill at Carson High School. 22 students and a teacher were quarentined for several hours.
A group of about 22 freshman students were quarantined inside the science wing of Carson High School after the Carson City Fire Department received a report of an unknown substance on the floor in a classroom there.
The call came in at about 1:10 p.m. and emergency crews responded. At least one nearby classroom was evacuated and the students told to go to library, according to Sophmore Sierra Whitten.
Carson Fire Cheif Stacey Giomi said the substance has been confirmed as mercury, and students were removed from the classroom and the school's air system was shut down,
The remainder of the student body unaffected by the incident were free to leave the building when the bell rang at 1:55 p.m.
Giomi said the State Environmental Protection Agency is called to test the air in the classroom and determine the amount of contamination. They will also assist in the clean up of the mercury, which Giomi described as being about the same amount that would be found in a thermometer.
"It's not a fast process but it is a methodical one," Giomi said.
The parents of those students being held have been notified of the situation.