Forty students at the Barnard School in Waterbury were taken to two hospitals on Tuesday after a carbon monoxide leak.
Firefighters were initially sent to a medical call at the school around 10:30 a.m. after a student fainted in the lobby, fire officials said.
While firefighters were treating the first student, another student and a staff member began to feel faint.
Firefighters decided to test the building and found high levels of carbon monoxide.
The school was evacuated, and those 40 students were taken to the hospital to be evaluated, the superintendent said.
Firefighters determined a rusty hinge on a furnace allowed the carbon monoxide to leak out into the school. They were able to seal the leak.
Twenty-one students were taken to St. Mary's Hospital and 19 were taken to Waterbury Hospital. All of the students from St. Mary's were released on Tuesday afternoon. A teacher and a custodian were also treated and released.
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"There was police, fire and stuff, and they had to go into the building because some people are sick," student Jayden Estrada said.
Waterbury has a plan in place to install permanent carbon monoxide detectors in its schools, but the plan has not been implemented.
The district bought temporary carbon monoxide detectors to be installed in all schools by the end of the day Tuesday, according to the superintendent's office.
