Drying chillies cause chemical scare in Australian suburb

A backyard cook-up sparked a chemical emergency in Melbourne's south-east. Ambulance officers were called to Cranbourne to treat residents who were overcome by fumes, which turned out to have come from a neighbor drying out strong chillies in their backyard.

Six advanced life support paramedics, a single responder intensive care paramedic and an ambulance manager arrived at the scene just before 10.30pm. People in houses up to 150 meters away were affected, and up to ten people were coughing and feeling unwell.

Intensive care paramedic David Llewelyn said there were concerns more people could become unwell. "At one stage there was a large number of people standing in the street and we didn't know what had caused them to become ill," Mr Llewelyn said. "We had up to ten people who were coughing and were dizzy and nauseated.

"It affected houses up to 150 metres away due to the still air. We decided to do a doorknock of other homes to make sure no one else had been overcome, while the CFA worked to find the source of the fumes. It emerged that someone was drying out strong chillies in the backyard and that's what caused the fumes," Mr Llewelyn said.