March 11 -- Lee County investigators have given All Souls Episcopal Church in North Fort Myers the OK to resume normal activity the day after mysterious fumes forced an evacuation of the church’s parish hall.

The church’s food pantry was in the middle of its weekly hot lunch program March 10 when some of the 150 people gathered to get a meal began coughing and feeling throat irritation. The Fort Myers News-Press reported that five people were treated at Cape Coral Hospital and released after being given oxygen.

“I felt sick to my stomach, like I wanted to vomit but I couldn’t,” said Richia Reynolds, the newspaper reported. “I was nervous about what (the cause) was.”

The county fire department’s hazardous materials team responded but could not find the source of the problem, said Janet Warren, who was answering the phones the next day at All Souls. “They think someone fired pepper spray” during the meal, she said. Warren also noted the fumes were contained to the parish hall and never spread to rest of the church or the thrift shop next door.

--Jim DeLa