A kitten looks out from their cage at a shelter in Clinton, Tennessee.

More than a dozen workers at a Montana animal shelter were hospitalized last week after inhaling methamphetamine that officials burned in an on-site incinerator. As of Sept. 15, the shelter animals remained displaced to temporary housing for what could be several weeks.

In a press release shared with USA TODAY, the Billings Police Department said that a "partner agency" was burning methamphetamine in an incinerator on Sept. 10.

During the blaze, "negative pressure" pushed smoke into the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter, which is in the same building as the machine, according to the press release.

As a result, the shelter began to fill with smoke and was evacuated. However, 14 employees reported feeling sick after the incident and were treated at a local hospital for inhaling the narcotic, Triniti Halverson, the shelter's executive director, said in a statement issued Sept. 13.

Some animals at the shelter also inhaled smoke and were treated "under close supervision" at a veterinary facility, Halverson said.

Animal shelter workers were treated in hyperbaric oxygen chamber

After the animal shelter building filled with smoke, a group of 14 employees were exposed to the emissions for about an hour while evacuating. They began feeling sick and were treated at a nearby hospital for inhalation, Halverson said.

According to Halverson, a doctor recommended each worker spend three hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to prevent short and long-term effects of toxic smoke inhalation.

Smoke poured out of one of the facility's "feline isolation rooms," Halverson said. Police confirmed in a press release that cats were evacuated from the shelter.

Afterward, the animals were decontaminated and bathed, and those who experienced the most inhalation are being supervised at a veterinary clinic, Halverson said.

Decontamination specialists said the shelter will be uninhabitable for several weeks, Halverson said.

Meth burning was 'our greatest fear,' animal shelter director says

The Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter is housed a facility that is owned by the city of Billings. An on-site animal crematorium, which is owned by the city's animal control department, is used for euthanasia services, Halverson said.

The Billings Police Department and partner agencies have also used the incinerator to destroy narcotics, according to a department press release. Animal shelter employees were unaware that officials used the machine for narcotics, Halverson said.

The shelter's staff "had been told that the police department was using the incinerator to dispose of 'evidence,' one time even mentioning that the evidence was at times 'drugs,'" Halverson said, adding that "no details were ever confirmed."

In recent years, there have been multiple incidents where smoke from the incinerator wafted into the shelter, and city officials have attempted to resolve the issue, according to Halverson.

After the Sept. 10 incident, city officials confirmed what Halverson called "our greatest fear."

"Evidence indeed meant drugs — and those specific drugs were Methamphetamine," Halverson said. "My team and my animals had been confirmed to have been exposed to Meth."

A press release from the police department said officials follow a set schedule for narcotics destruction and routinely notify the local health department.

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Officials burned methamphetamine in animal shelter incinerator. Workers were hospitalized.

Reporting by Melina Khan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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