Fentanyl reportedly causes several first responders to fall sick after rescuing passed-out man on Golden Gate Bridge

Authorities believe that seven people were exposed to deadly drug

Seven people, including several first responders, were taken to hospital in San Francisco, California, after a car crash on the Golden Gate Bridge possibly exposed them to the deadly drug fentanyl.

At around 11:45am on Sunday, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers responded to reports of an impaired driver stopped on the bridge after their car collided with a barrier, according to a statement by the agency.

A member of the San Francisco Fire Department was the first to respond to the scene and tended to the driver while waiting for the CHP officers to arrive.

The first CHP officer at the scene helped carry the man out of the vehicle and parked the car off the road, before he then tended to the driver. 

CHP Officer Andrew Barclay, of the agency’s Marin office, told NBC News that first responders smelt “what we believe is fentanyl,” and said that the driver and CHP officer who entered the car quickly started showing signs of exposure to the drug.

The driver was immediately treated with the narcotic overdose spray, Narcan, “to bring him back,” while the responding officer quickly became incapacitated and “began convulsing and vomiting,” Mr Barclay told NBC.

He added that the CHP officer was then also given Narcan and rushed to hospital along with the driver, and claimed that the treatment “likely saved his life.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, which can cause breathing problems, nausea, and be fatal in small doses when produced illicitly, according to CNN.

Later on Sunday, three other CHP officers, a Golden Gate Bridge patrol officer and a tow truck driver also fell ill and were treated at a local hospital.

All of the individuals who were possibly exposed to fentanyl were released from hospital on Sunday evening, and a hazmat team from the Mill Valley Fire Department decontaminated all of the vehicles at the scene of the incident.

“Once it’s determined that it’s a possible fentanyl call, we have to treat it just as we do with all other infectious diseases or chemicals,” Mill Valley Fire chief Scott Barnes told NBC.

“We have to wear proper equipment, otherwise we become the victim,” he added.

The driver, who is 32 years old, was arrested on suspicion of a misdemeanour, but was released on Sunday evening.