The Atlanta fire department has suspended training after three of its recruits were sent to the hospital with heat illness.

It happened Monday during the first day of training with the self-contained breathing apparatus.

One of the recruits suffered a heat stroke, while the other two had heat exhaustion, Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said.

“It is alarming to us,” Cochran told Channel 2 Action News. “We hear about this happening with football players during this time of year. But never with firefighters.”

All three recruits were taken to the Atlanta Medical Center. Two of them were still in the hospital as of Tuesday evening. The one who suffered heat stroke is recovering and is now breathing without a ventilator.

Cochran says the department has suspended this type of training until it figures out what caused the recruits to go down.

Monday’s high temperature was 84 degrees. WSB meteorologist Kirk Mellish says temperatures have been near to below normal the last week, but the humidity has been high.

Supervisors check vital signs during drills. Recruits keep hydration logs, but not over the weekend.  So the fire department is checking to see if the recruits did not drink enough before Monday’s training.

“So two days without adequate hydration and then arriving and Monday and engaging in this type of physical activity could be a contributing factor,” Cochran said.

The names of the recruits were not released.