SAN DIEGO: Half a dozen people at a Kaiser Foundation Hospital administrative building were exposed to an unknown white powder yesterday and went to the emergency room as a precaution, authorities said.
None required medical attention, and no evidence was recovered for testing.
A woman in the mail room said she opened an envelope about noon and got some of the powder on her arm, said Maurice Luque, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman. She washed off the powder in a bathroom but said she felt a burning sensation afterward, he said.
The woman came into contact with five co-workers, and they all chose to go to the hospital on Zion Avenue to be checked. A total of 26 people, including the woman, her co-workers, the drivers in the group and hospital patients, employees and visitors were exposed, Luque said.
Hazardous-materials crews at the administrative building in Murphy Canyon were unable to find the envelope, which had been thrown in the trash. Air samples did not show any hazardous materials existed, Luque said.
“What may have happened was that paper dust from all the envelopes may have collected on that envelope,” Luque said. “Or, cornstarch used for the automated letter-opening machine may have collected on the envelope.” –A.M.
Wife found dead at home;
husband taken to hospital
RAMONA: A 44-year-old woman was found dead and her husband was hospitalized after a prescription-drug overdose in their home yesterday, a sheriff's official said.
The woman's name was not released. The cause of her death was not apparent, homicide Lt. Dennis Brugos said.
Deputies were called to the couple's home on Tranquility Lane about 4:45 p.m. after a friend went to check on them. They hadn't shown up for work yesterday, Brugos said.
Deputies found the wife dead in one room and her husband semiconscious in another part of the house. Brugos said it appeared the man had overdosed on medication. –P.R.
Crews have tough time
rescuing trapped woman
NORTH COUNTY: Rescuers worked into the night yesterday trying to figure out how to get a woman out of a canyon in the Pauma Valley area after she slid about 800 feet down the steep, wooded slope.
The woman, in her 40s, was visiting friends on Nate Harrison Grade Road, on a south slope of Palomar Mountain. She hiked into a canyon below the friends'house to see a waterfall but got stuck partway there, Cal Fire Capt. Nick Schuler said.
“The next thing her friends knew, she was at the bottom,” Schuler said. “She slid the whole way.”
Her friends called for help about 4:50 p.m. and scrambled to her side. The woman had suffered only minor injuries but was unable to walk back up the steep canyon trails, Schuler said.
Rescue efforts ran into problems. A sheriff's helicopter couldn't get low enough to land near the woman, a Coast Guard helicopter couldn't hoist her out because 75-foot trees were in the way, and firefighters couldn't carry her up because she weighs 265 pounds. By 9 p.m., firefighters decided to try fastening the woman into a basket-style stretcher and hauling her up with ropes.
Schuler said the rescue could take several more hours, with about 50 firefighters and an inmate hand crew to clear a path up the hill and help with the ropes. –P.R.
Man caught near border
wanted in L.A. slaying
SAN DIEGO: Border Patrol agents have captured a Mexican fugitive wanted in connection with a homicide in Los Angeles.
Guadalupe Torres-Rangel, 41, was with four other Mexican nationals in a remote area near Dulzura about four miles north of the border when agents spotted the group about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, a Border Patrol spokesman said yesterday.
The agents determined that all five had entered the country illegally.
As the men were being processed, agents found that Torres-Rangel had an outstanding felony warrant, the spokesman said. He was handed over to the Sheriff's Department and was awaiting extradition to Los Angeles.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department's Web site, Torres-Rangel is wanted on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit extortion in a 2007 gang-related incident that left a 23-day-old baby deadand injured a man.
Los Angeles investigators said gang members had been targeting and extorting vendors in the MacArthur Park area. A man was standing with his girlfriend selling items on the street when assailants approached and shot him and the baby in the chest. –D.B.
Staff writers Angelica Martinez, Pauline Repard and Debbi Baker contributed to this report.
