Three Baltimore County police officers are recovering from a fentanyl exposure incident that occurred Thursday night.
The officers became ill after a traffic stop resulted in two arrests and recovered narcotics. When the arresting officer returned to the Woodlawn precinct around 11 PM, another officer -who came in contact with the powder in question- fell ill.
Both officers were immediately treated, while a third officer fell ill and prompted all three to be sent to the hospital.
Following the incident, the station was locked down and evacuated, with HAZMAT units cleaning the officers’ equipment. A private company was later called in to decontaminate on a larger-scale basis.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore County Fire Department’s hazardous materials team confirmed that the officers had come into contact with fentanyl, prompting the evacuation.
Once a rare event, fentanyl exposure has become more frequent across the nation and just another deadly hazard first responders face.
