HEAT-RELATED INCIDENT — LEHIGH ACRES
25 students were evaluated after a heat-related incident, and 2 were taken to the hospital
Twenty-four Lehigh Senior High School students had to be assessed by paramedics after a heat-related incident on the school’s football field in Lehigh Acres.
Lehigh Acres Fire and Lee County EMS crews responded to the incident at 9:03 AM.
The SDLC confirms that the school’s JROTC was performing a Veterans Day ceremony when multiple students started experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion.
LSHS’s School Resource Officer (SRO) originally reported that around ten students were experiencing symptoms, some of whom lost consciousness.
As the first arriving fire crews arrived, they later determined that seventeen students had sustained heat-related injuries.
Throughout the incident, EMS crews evaluated a total of 25 students.
Two students were transported to Golisano Children’s Hospital for heat exhaustion while the rest were released from the scene.
An additional student was transported to GCH from Lehigh Senior High School for an unrelated medical issue.
Tayna Roach, a representative for LSHS, sent out an email to parents at 9:21 AM Friday morning calling it a “minor incident” where only “a couple” of students sustained heat-related injuries.
This email was sent out to parents before emergency crews could fully evaluate the situation, which was determined to be a Level 3 Mass Casualty Incident.
The scene cleared around 11:30 AM.
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Lehigh Acres Fire and Lee County EMS crews are on the scene of a Level 3 Mass Casualty Incident at Lehigh Senior High School after over 20 students reportedly sustained heat-exhaustion-related injuries on the football field, some of which passed out. Initial reports indicate that they may have been engaged in a JROTC Drill when the incident occurred. This is a developing situation.
CLARIFICATION: The fire department deems an incident with five or more patients as a “Mass Casualty Incident”. There are NO FATALITIES and nobody has died. This is not a shooting, this incident is purely heat-related, according to initial reports.
DEFINITION: Since many seem to not know what the word “casualty” means. Here it is from Merriam-Webster:
“a person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed”
It does NOT automatically mean a death.