To go down in history as "The Hayride to Hell"

I didn't attend our local Halloween party last night....just got back from a conference in Denver, and I was exhausted. A neighbor started banging on my door late last night, we have no phone lines or cell service up here, and I'm a local volunteer firefighter/medical responder and have a sheriff's dept. radio to talk directly to 911 dispatch, which I called.

Sounds like they had a hay ride behind the tractor, then returned for a scrumptious pot luck dinner. When I arrived, an hour and a half after they ate dinner, I found people sprawled all over the house and outside, puking their guts out and moaning. The end result was 3 ambulances, over 20 EMTs and firefighters to triage, direct traffic, and get 8 people to the hospital, the rest driven home as it was determined they were too sick to drive home themselves.

Everyone is OK this morning, with one elderly gent still hospitalized for observation.

We'll never know what dish caused this mass casualty incident......but for starters, if you are having a potluck:

-Be wary of cross contamination on cutting boards -- for example raw meat vs. vegetables.
-If you make pasta or potato salad, COOL THE PASTA OR POTATOES before adding other ingredients.
-Everything cold should be refrigerated and only brought out for serving, then promptly returned to the fridge; everything hot should be refrigerated right after serving.
-Wash hands frequently, AND wash raw vegetables before cutting.

There's more info out there:
http://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/news/2007/potluck.htm
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Cooking_for_Groups.pdf

Halloween should be FUN scary. This incident was REALLY scary!
Be careful out there.
DANBOB