BATON ROUGE – Firefighters worked to contain a slow leak of carbon dioxide from an area inside the belly of a casino riverboat along the river Friday.

Emergency responders were called to reports of a situation on the casino boat at the Belle of Baton Rouge around lunch Friday.  It took about 3 hours to get the situation cleared. 

The carbon dioxide was found to be leaking from equipment located in the hull near a series of mechanical rooms and offices.

Authorities are not sure what system the carbon dioxide is used in in this situation but CO2 is common in fire suppression systems.

The leak is contained to a small area of the riverboat and casino operations on the floors above are not impacted.

However, an employee working in the area that initially came into contact with the leak was taken to the hospital after reporting breathing issues.  

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