When her head started aching a few days ago, Martina Hairston figured it was just the stress from being in a six-week Upward Bound program at Roanoke College. And when she woke up with an upset stomach, she dismissed it as nothing more than hunger pangs.

It was only after Martina, 15, and other residents of Fox Hall were roused by fire alarms Friday morning that the source of her ailments sank in.

"It was kind of scary," Martina said. "After they told me it was carbon monoxide, I was thinking: 'I know this can kill you, and you can't taste it and you can't smell it.' I told myself: 'Don't let this be psychological.' I waited long enough until I said, 'OK, this is real.' "

Martina, a rising sophomore at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, was one of 111 people rushed to Roanoke Valley hospitals Friday morning after a carbon monoxide leak sickened participants of the Upward Bound program and a Lutheran church conference in an adjoining dormitory.

When the fire alarm went off at 7:20 a.m., Martina didn't know at first what was happening. As she and the rest of the students left the building, they were directed by Upward Bound counselors and rescue officials to continue on to the cafeteria for breakfast.

Meanwhile, a fleet of ambulances was converging on campus.

After eating, Martina said she became more nauseated and began to feel lightheaded. Her roommate and a third student complained of the same symptoms. About that time, paramedics arrived at the cafeteria and began to explain to the students that they might have been exposed to carbon monoxide.

Martina and two of her friends were led to an ambulance and given oxygen. "That helped tremendously," she said.

After spending a few hours in the hospital, Martina was back at home Friday afternoon and wondering if she would be able to complete the remaining two weeks of the Upward Bound program.

"It's a good program," she said. "We're having fun and we don't want to give up on it."

Jordan Fitzgerald, an Upward Bound student and a rising senior at Roanoke County's Northside High School who also suffered from a headache Friday, said the early-morning alarms didn't concern her at first. Then the 17-year-old saw fire engines and ambulances and people being carried out on stretchers.

In what could have been a scene of mass chaos, Martina credited EMS workers and the staff of Upward Bound and Roanoke College for the way they handled the situation.

"It seemed more like a fire drill," she said. "It was real organized."

Judy Norris, who arrived Thursday to attend a three-day Lutheran Power in the Spirit conference on campus, was another person who quickly went from staying in a dorm room to a hospital room.

Norris, 68, said in a phone interview Friday afternoon from Lewis-Gale Medical Center that she was being administered oxygen, that she was on a heart monitor and receiving intravenous fluids. She wasn't sure what the level of carbon monoxide in her blood was, but assumed it must have been high.

Norris said her family is coming down from Middlebrook today and that she expects to be released by Sunday.

"I think they're being real cautious here at the hospital," said Norris, who works as an Avon representative. "I do appreciate that."

This had been her first time attending the Power in the Spirit convention. She said her experience would not stop her from attending it again.

"This was a freak thing," Norris said. "I'm sure it was."

Martina said the students in Fox Hall might have been the least affected because the building, unlike the two adjoining ones, is not air-conditioned. Over the past four weeks of the Upward Board program, most students had kept fans going in their rooms all night.

"In this case," Martina said, "It paid off."