By By Lee Weyhrich
A sexual related warming lubricant caused Atmore's Rite Aid Pharmacy to have to close, or rather open its doors for about two hours.
Fire and rescue units and members of the city utilities board arrived at the scene after employees called about an unusually strong smell that was causing watery eyes, headaches and sore throats.
"It smells like alcohol," manager Lisa Westmacott said. "It is strong enough it is burning people's eyes and lips and I've got a headache."
Several bottles of Play More Warming Lubricant, a spray-on sexual lubricant leaked, filling the store with fumes and caused the employees of the store to call for help.
According to witnesses firemen entered the store with chemical suits to try to track down the smell. A gas meter was used to see if the smell was related to a gas leak of some sort.
"One of the customers smelled it when she first came in and said it got stronger the longer she was there," Kathy Hurst, an employee said.
Employees first noticed the odor around 11:30 a.m.. The smell was almost pleasant in the beginning, but quickly became overpowering as the it spread.
"It smelled almost like menthol or alcohol at first, but then it got worse and worse," Hurst said.
According to Westmacott the smell had been building for nearly an hour before the store was evacuated.
One customer waited outside hoping the store would be reopened shortly.
"I just came to get some medicine," customer Leron Fisher said. "I'm going to have to come back probably."
Westmacott called the fire department and evacuated the store until the source of the smell could be located. The Air Conditioning had recently been worked on and she feared some kind of toxic chemical could be leaking through the air vents.
After a city employee tracked the source of the smell to the marital aid, one of the offending bottles was brought out of the store for inspection.
"This is what caused it," Fire Chief Gerry McGhee laughed.
At the time that bottle was the only one believed to have triggered the smell. According to one employee several bottles of Play More were to blame.
"It looked like several of them had been leaking," the employee said. "The aerosol had gotten up in the air-conditioning and spread the smell. It still smells a little bit, but it's a lot better now."
All of the products from the company that produces Play More have been bagged and are to be sent back to the supplier.