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Investigators in New Mexico were working to identify an unknown substance they said may have contributed to the deaths of three people in a home east of Albuquerque, and left nearly two dozen first responders temporarily quarantined after they were exposed.
Authorities responded Wednesday to a report of a suspected drug overdose at the home in the rural town of Mountainair. AP reported that two people remained in a hospital Thursday, including a person found unresponsive at the residence where the three deaths occurred.
Officials said some first responders began coughing, vomiting and experiencing dizziness after they were outside the house. As a result, medical workers checked nearly two dozen people who may have come into contact with the substance, according to the University of New Mexico Hospital.
University of New Mexico Hospital officials said they decontaminated nearly two dozen people, most of them first responders, after exposure concerns. The hospital said most of those checked had no symptoms, and three people were admitted to the hospital Wednesday, including an emergency medical services official who later was released, Mountainair Mayor Peter Nieto said.
A timeline of the call emerged from audio archives from the Torrance County Fire Dispatch channel, according to AP. Dispatchers said they went to the home Wednesday morning after a report that a 60-year-old man was unconscious but breathing, and soon after, a caller requested naloxone, the opioid-overdose antidote.
AP reported that Torrance County Undersheriff Stephanie Reynolds said one person was revived using naloxone and that it would only reverse overdoses in people who have opiates in their systems. Less than an hour after the initial call, the dispatch center relayed there were multiple exposures, but there was no clarity at that point about what substance responders had encountered at the home.
Mountainair Mayor Peter Nieto said he spotted drugs at the home, but he did not specify the type. Nieto also dismissed carbon monoxide or natural gas exposure as possible causes for the health issues responders experienced, and New Mexico State Police spokesperson Wilson Silver said investigators did not believe the substance was airborne.
Silver also said there was no threat to the public. AP reported that it was not yet clear what the substance was, how the people in the home died, what caused some first responders to become sick, or exactly how many people experienced symptoms, and that autopsies would be conducted while authorities tested for what substances were present in the home.
The incident unfolded as New Mexico continues to grapple with high rates of overdose deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data cited by AP. AP said New Mexico had the fourth-highest rate of drug overdose deaths of any U.S. state in 2024, with 775 deaths, based on the most recent CDC figures available.
Residents around Mountainair have voiced frustration about drug use in the community and elsewhere. AP reported that the mayor posted on social media that Mountainair’s law enforcement officers and first responders work daily to protect the community and respond to difficult situations.