RILEY COUNTY – Officials are investigating what caused a chlorine leak at the Northview Pool Wednesday in Manhattan.

Just after 2p.m. Wednesday, the Manhattan Fire Department and Riley County Emergency Medical Service were dispatched to the pool at 510 Griffith Drive for a report of a chlorine release.

Crews arrived on scene to find multiple individuals suffering from skin and inhalation burns. Crews quickly determined the release was contained and there was no further threat to the public.

Eight pool staff members were in the pool at the time of the release and were transported by Riley County EMS to the hospital. Via Christi Hospital reported two additional walk-in patients.

No members of the public are believed to be affected since they were not in the water at the time of the release, according to a news release from the City of Manhattan.

The City of Manhattan closed Northview Pool until further notice.

Northview Pool experienced a lightning strike earlier this month that affected the chlorine controllers that release the chemical into the water. Equipment was replaced to maintain operation of the pool while permanent replacement parts are on order. That equipment did not perform as expected today, which caused the release, according to Manhattan Parks and Recreation Director Eddie Eastes.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have found a girl safe in the backseat of a car where she was sleeping when the vehicle was stolen from a Kansas City, Kansas, gas station.

The Kansas City Star reports that a woman stole the car around 7 p.m. Wednesday after the driver left the vehicle running with the girl inside while he went into the gas station.

Authorities found the child about an hour later in Tonganoxie in neighboring Leavenworth County. The girl is around 4 years old. Police say she wasn’t hurt but was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Police dogs were used to search a nearby wooded area, but officers didn’t immediately find the suspected thief or a man who was with her. The man was driving an older utility truck.

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KANSAS CITY- Police reported the child was located safe near Tonganoxie.

Child has been found safe!! Thanks for the RTs!!

— Terry Zeigler (@KCKPDChief) July 13, 2017

KANSAS CITY – Law enforcement authorities are looking for a suspect in stolen a vehicle with a 3-year girl in it.

The vehicle is a gray or silver 2006 Ford Focus with a Missouri license plate of DO7E5X, according to Kansas City, KS Police Chief Terry Zeigler.

Gray or silver 2006 Ford Focus (tag: DO7E5X)taken from 7th & Riverview w/ 3 yo sleeping in back seat. Officers searching for car.

— Terry Zeigler (@KCKPDChief) July 12, 2017

 

The car was taken from a service station at 7th Street and Riverview in Kansas City with a 3-year-old child.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — Thieves targeting a so-called tiny home in Missouri decided to go big — and steal the whole house.

The Joplin Globe reports Missouri resident Lisa Stubblefield left the structure in a roped-off area in Springfield last week for the Food Truck Showdown. When she arrived for the festivities Saturday morning, it was gone.

Stubblefield says she’s surprised someone targeted the building, which is 13 feet (4 meters) tall and looks like a small house, complete with a covered porch, but has no plumbing. It’s designed to be a mobile clothing boutique.

Stubblefield’s Facebook post about the theft was shared more than 5,000 times and eventually caught the attention of a woman in Pittsburg, Kansas, a town about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west. Police found the house there the next day.

No arrests have been made.

KEARNY COUNTY  – Authorities with the Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism and Wheatland Electric are investigating a power outage caused by a bobcat.

On Tuesday morning, a Wheatland Electric Cooperative line crew was dispatched on a routine outage call near Lakin, Kansas, according to a media release to Wheatland Electric.

Upon arrival at the service location, they found the meter off and proceeded to isolate the source of the outage. A Wheatland lineman patrolling line nearby discovered a bobcat that had come into contact with energized lines. The bobcat climbed to the top of a 35-foot electric pole and made contact simultaneously with a phase wire and a ground wire which resulted in the animal’s electrocution.

The line crew used a bucket truck to remove the animal, assess any further damage to distribution infrastructure and make the necessary repairs to restore power to the affected meter. Once power was restored, Wheatland contacted the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism office in Pratt to report the incident. A local game warden from Deerfield was assigned the highly unusual incident and has been in contact with Wheatland personnel.

Since the 1970’s, Wheatland has made wildlife protection a significant part of its electrical system reliability goals. Wheatland attempts to protect all wildlife species including birds of prey, whooping cranes, raccoons, squirrels, snakes, numerous small bird species and more. Wheatland utilizes several methods such as the installation of rubber bushings on transformers, insulated jumper wires, sheet metal wrapping on certain poles and bird nest removal from substations to protect wildlife from electrocution. These efforts both protect valuable wildlife resources and help to improve system reliability for members. For more information on Wheatland’s wildlife protection efforts please click here.

“This unfortunate incident is a valuable reminder that coming into contact with energized electrical lines can result in tragic loss of life to both animals and humans,” said Wheatland spokesperson Shawn Powelson. “We’d like to remind our members to assume any electrical line is energized, never go near downed lines and always report them immediately to their local Wheatland Electric office.

WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) — The Cowley County sheriff says a man who was the subject of a search after a mobile home fire has been found dead.

Sheriff David Falletti says a deputy found the body of 25-year-old Jacob Andes early Wednesday while doing a routine check of property where a mobile home was destroyed by fire Tuesday.

Falletti says Andes appears to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputies began looking for Andes after they went to the property about three miles east of Winfield to investigate a report of a domestic dispute early Tuesday and found the mobile home on fire.

A deputy reported hearing popping noises from inside the mobile home and believed it could be gunshots or sounds from the fire.

NEW YORK (AP) — A security researcher says a lapse has exposed data from millions of Verizon customers, leaking names, addresses and personal identification numbers, or PINs.

Verizon Wireless says 6 million customers were affected, but the company says that none of the information made it into the wrong hands. The company says the only person who got access to the data was the researcher who brought the leak to its attention.

The security firm, UpGuard, says the problem stemmed from a cloud server that a third-party vendor had misconfigured.

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan says the issue comes down to human error and it doesn’t make sense to blame cloud service providers like Amazon and Google. She says such lapses are likely common, but it’s hard to know since we only know what’s disclosed

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Federal officials are no longer requiring Kansas to file bi-weekly reports on a large backlog of applicants for the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment was notified last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that the state can discontinue the reports it has been sending since early 2006. At the time, Kansas had more than 7,000 backlogged applications that had been pending for more than 45 days for its Medicaid program, called KanCare.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports  health department spokeswoman Angela deRocha said the federal agency was satisfied with the progress and results the state has achieved.

The CMS said it will still periodically ask Kansas for updates on its eligibility processing.