The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON -- County offi cials shut down the Columbia County Courthouse last Monday in the late morning after a back-up power supply in the basement of the building malfunctioned and began emitting potentially harmful fumes.

By 11 a.m. Monday morning, seven county employees had been sent to Dayton General Hospital to be examined for possible exposure to carbon monoxide.

No one was seriously harmed, but the office immediately initiated the closure of the public building to avoid any further potential for exposure.

The dead battery, which had supplied back-up power for technology in several coun...