Something in the Air at a New Jersey Walmart Sent 19 People to the Hospital

A Tuesday afternoon shopping trip turned into a hazmat situation at a Walmart in Deptford Township, New Jersey, when an unknown irritant sent nearly two dozen people outside coughing and burning — and 19 of them to the hospital.

Multiple 911 calls started coming in around 4:15 p.m. from inside the Walmart on Cooper Street. People were reporting respiratory issues — coughing, a burning sensation in the throat, a gas-like smell that hit out of nowhere.

Jeffrey Jones was inside with his two sons, standing in the store's barber shop, when they noticed other shoppers starting to cough. Then they started too. "There was nothing to indicate there was something in the air," Jones said. "My biggest concern, as a father, isn't so much about myself. We just want to ensure that whatever it was is found out."

Tony Patton described it plainly: "It got in my throat, like a gas smell. Burning sensation, yes."

Crystal Davison was a delivery driver trying to go in as everyone was coming out. She saw a man coughing so hard in the parking lot that he fell to the ground in the woods near the store. "It is nerve-racking," she said, "because you don't really know what it is."

When fire personnel arrived they were met by nearly two dozen people pouring out of the store coughing. "When fire personnel pulled up on the scene, they were met by a large number of people — two dozen almost — coming out coughing and just being irritated by something," said Andrew Halter, chief of hazmat for Gloucester County Emergency Response.

Nineteen people were taken to nearby hospitals. Most had minor symptoms. The store was fully evacuated.

Here's the Frustrating Part

Firefighters, hazmat crews, and Walmart's own facilities staff went through the building. They found nothing. No hazardous substance. No obvious source. After assessing the situation, they deemed the building safe for employees to return — and scheduled a deep clean before reopening Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. Some open-air products on shelves would be discarded as a precaution.

"As of right now, the source of the irritant is still under investigation and nothing has been positively identified yet," Halter said.

Police will review surveillance footage. Facilities personnel will go through the building's mechanical and ventilation systems. The investigation continues. But right now, whatever caused nearly two dozen people to start coughing in a South Jersey Walmart on a Tuesday afternoon remains a complete mystery.

Walmart issued a statement saying customer and employee safety is their top priority and thanking first responders for their quick response. They didn't say anything else, because at this point there isn't anything else to say.

What Could Cause Something Like This?

Mysterious mass irritant events in enclosed spaces — particularly big box stores — aren't unheard of, and the cause is often less dramatic than it initially seems.

Common culprits include cleaning chemicals that accidentally mix — bleach combined with ammonia, for example, produces chloramine gas, which causes exactly the kind of coughing, burning throat, and eye irritation people described. A drain clog treated with the wrong combination of products, an HVAC system drawing in fumes from outside, a chemical spill in a back room, or even certain pest control products can create localized irritation that spreads through air circulation without leaving an obvious source once the concentration disperses.

The fact that hazmat crews found nothing by the time they did their sweep is consistent with that kind of scenario — a transient chemical event that dissipates before crews can identify it. Ventilation systems in large stores can also dilute airborne irritants quickly once people stop being exposed, which is why 19 people felt it acutely but testing equipment found nothing.

The surveillance review and mechanical inspection may eventually point to an answer. Or it may end up as one of those incidents that never gets a clean explanation — just a Tuesday afternoon when the air in a Walmart in New Jersey made nearly two dozen people sick and nobody could figure out exactly why.

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