Suspected gas leak triggers Stage 2 evacuation
By Susan Wong and Anita Liu
O n Sep. 13 at around 9:50 a.m., the smell of gas was reported in Room 140 by English teacher Stephanie Crabtree. The school was evacuated for precautionary purposes as the authorities were contacted. A Pacific Gas & Electric service technician did a sweep around the entire school for traces of a natural gas leak. At 10:48 a.m., the school was given an “all clear” and students were sent back to class.
At 10:00 a.m., principal Andrew Ishibashi announced a Stage 1 evacuation via the P.A. system. Students headed to either Rolph Nicol Jr. park or the soccer field to evacuate the campus. Then, at 10:13 a.m., the administration elevated the evacuation to Stage 2 status. Students walked to the football field and waited for further instructions, while the PG&E technician checked the school with a gas leak detector. According to his service report, there was a minor gas leak (1.2%) detected at the appliance shut-off valve in the boiler room below the cafeteria. No natural gas was detected during the sweep of the rest of the campus, including the classrooms, hallways and the kitchen.
Junior Josephine Cureton was in Room 140, where the initial smell was detected. According to Cureton, the students in the class were convinced that the smell was durian, a fruit that has a strong odor, but once they realized no one was eating durian, they “freaked out.” Crabtree’s class was being escorted to Room 214 by a security guard to continue class when Ishibashi announced the Stage 1 evacuation and the school was evacuated.
According to Ishibashi, the boiler room gas leak detection was “not tied in with the evacuation.” The cause of the smell has yet to be fully determined. “There was something that was blown, and they’re thinking it’s sewage, ” Ishibashi said. As a precaution, however, the boiler has been shut off.
The school has three boilers in the boiler room, and two of them can be controlled remotely by the school district downtown. The one that is currently down had to be shut off manually by maintenance staff. According to administration, the school is working on fixing it as soon as possible. Before it can get repaired, some classrooms may experience colder temperatures than normal. The maintenance staff is currently investigating which classrooms will be affected.
