Seventeen People Hospitalized For Mysterious Smell At Truck Stop

Authorities are still baffled by an unidentified strange odor that sent more than a dozen truck stop patrons to the hospital over the weekend.

The smell was first reported just before 4 p.m. on Friday, August 16, at the Bannock Peak Truck Stop and Casino located on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation near Pocatello, Idaho, according to a report from the Idaho State Journal.

Within an hour of the odor being reported, the Fort Hall Fire Department responded and the truck stop was evacuated to allow hazmat teams to search for the source of the smell.

Seventeen people who were in the truck stop/casino at the time that the odor was reported were taken to the hospital via ambulance. All 17 people were released from the hospital by Saturday morning.

Hazmat teams with various agencies searched the facility for hours but were not able to locate the source of the smell.

The truck stop remained closed through Friday night but was reopened on Saturday morning after the building was declared to be safe. The casino portion of the building remained closed.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes is still investigating the source of the mysterious smell.