ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found at a home where first responders became sick after answering a call about suspected overdoses in a rural county in New Mexico, authorities said Friday.
Three people found inside the house on Wednesday died. A fourth person who was in the house and one of the emergency responders who became sick were still being treated at a hospital Friday.
A doctor who saw the responders exhibiting symptoms — including nausea and dizziness — said their symptoms most closely resembled fentanyl exposure. However, the investigation into how the exposure happened and what caused it was ongoing.
University of New Mexico Hospital Chief Medical Officer Steve McLaughlin said during a news conference in Albuquerque that authorities were working “under the assumption” that fentanyl was to blame. He said the responders’ symptoms ranged from mild to slightly more severe.
“It’s probably not absorbed through your skin, but it would be absorbed through your eyes, nose, mucous membranes, or if you inhale it,” McLaughlin told The Associated Press.
Meth is notoriously toxic when exposed to it, and fentanyl less so. Authorities noted during Friday’s news conference that the responders who became ill had directly treated the people found inside the house east of Albuquerque, in the rural town of Mountainair.
More than a dozen first responders were quarantined and decontaminated after responding to the scene.
Of the two people still hospitalized Friday, one was a person who was found unresponsive in the home where three died. Authorities said they were called to the home by a co-worker of one of the people inside after they failed to show up to work.
New Mexico State Police Chief Matt Broom said investigators did not immediately find evidence of drug manufacturing in the house.
State police said early on that there was no threat to the public and that investigators did not believe the substance that caused the responders to become sick was airborne.
Two of the victims were identified Friday as Mika Rascon, 51, and Georgia Rascon, 49. The name of the third person who died has not been released, and the cause and manner of their deaths has not been determined.
Audio archives from the Torrance County Fire Dispatch channel on the site Broadcastify showed that responders went to the home following a report of a 60-year-old man unconscious but breathing.
Within minutes, a dispatcher is heard saying there were three other people at the home, two of whom might not be breathing. Then came a call for naloxone, the opioid-overdose antidote. One person was revived using naloxone, authorities said.
Less than an hour after the initial call, the dispatch center relayed that there were multiple exposures.
Some first responders began coughing, vomiting and experiencing dizziness, authorities said. Most had no symptoms, hospital officials said.
The initial responders on the scene did not have protective gear but followed safety protocols, said Torrance County Fire Chief Gary Smith. They saw two victims inside, pulled them into the fresh air and attempted to resuscitate them, he said.
“This did come in as an overdose. There was no indication of any type of hazmat type scenario,” Smith said.
Debriefings were planned in coming days to determine if there were any weaknesses in the response, he added.
Scientific evidence shows fentanyl, a potent opioid, does not cause overdoses through casual skin contact or brief airborne exposure in typical field scenarios. Experts say overdoses require significant ingestion, injection or inhalation of the substance.
Residents around Mountainair, a town with fewer than 1,000 people, have voiced frustration about drug use in the community and elsewhere.
New Mexico had the fourth-highest rate of drug overdose deaths of any U.S. state in 2024, with 775 deaths, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Claudia Lauer contributed reporting from Philadelphia.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
