KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – A gas leak at a Prime Beverage in Kannapolis sent several employees to the hospital in late Saturday night. OSHA is now investigating the incident. Workers at the beverage packing facility say a gas leak got them sick on the job. “I was throwing up. I started feeling nauseous, had a headache, started getting chest pains, and I went inside of my car,” the employee who didn’t want to be named said. He says when he was at work Saturday, January 11th, when supervisors suddenly told 30 employees to go into the break room. “I was like, I can’t sit in here. Like, I’m getting a really bad headache. It’s starting to get worse just sitting in the building and I keep throwing up,” the employee said. Kannapolis firefighters were called to the building several hours later. A spokesperson for the city says the department found high levels of nitrogen. At least three employees were transported to the hospital. “They were doing a bunch of tests and x-rays and everything on me. They told me that I did have carbon monoxide in my system and that they had to drain it all out,” the employee said. The employee says he got a doctor’s note to sit out the next day of work. He says his boss fired him instead. “He said it was because of my phone, but I was like, he could have been fired me,” the employee said. “He had he had multiple opportunities to fire me because of my phone. It’s crazy how it’s happened right after the gas leak.” In a statement to WCCB, Prime Beverage says in part, “the health and safety of our employees is our top priority and management acted as quickly as possible…” The employee still feels the environment is unsafe. “I don’t feel safe in that work environment, because if that can happen once, it can happen again, then you don’t have the right equipment to determine the kind of gas,” the employee said. “I don’t know if I feel safe coming back there.” OSHA inspected Prime Beverage back in 2021 and found at least four violations including exit routes and fire extinguishers. Investigators are still working to learn the cause of the latest gas leak.