A foul, sulfur-like odor caused a flurry of complaints to several police departments in the suburbs Wednesday morning. NBC 5’s Anthony Ponce reports.
The foul, “sulfur-like” odor that caused a flurry of complaints to several police departments Wednesday morning in several Chicago suburbs came from an equipment malfunction at Citgo's Lemont refinery, the company confirmed.
In a statement, Citgo said the refinery experienced a gas recovery compressor shutdown, which caused “small-volume flaring.”
According to Citgo, in the event of a compressor shutdown, “a small amount of gas is diverted to the flare stack, which combusts gas to safe levels.”
Police in nearby Lemont, Romeoville and departments as far as Park Ridge and Glenview received several calls from residents asking about the smell. Clarendon Hills Middle School was evacuated as a precaution, staff confirmed.
"It almost smelled like car exhaust when it's no good, you know?" said Lemont resident Gary Krueger. "I thought it was my daughter, not gonna lie, because she was sleeping in the cradle next to us."
Citgo said it believes the compressor shut down at approximately 12:40 a.m. and the morning’s heavy fog helped keep the smell from dispersing.
Residents say the smell lingered in the area for at least two hours.
The compressor was fixed by about 5:20 a.m. Citgo is investigating the cause of the compressor shutdown.
