News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Local & Bistate

August 15, 2012

Gas leak forces Riley Elementary students outside

Students evacuated for 2 hours while leak repaired

RILEY — A small natural gas leak prompted an evacuation of Riley Elementary School for about two hours Tuesday, the first day of school.

Riley and Honey Creek fire departments responded as well as the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency, Vigo County Sheriff’s Department, district administration and an ambulance service as a precaution.

Most of the 430 students ate lunch outside, and no one became sick from the smell, authorities say. The evacuation was from about 11:15 a.m. to about 1:15 p.m., at which time students returned to their classrooms.

Officials did find a small leak on a 2-inch fitting in the boiler room at the school, said Jim Dean, district manager for Ohio Valley Gas, which checked the entire building.

The fire departments also used monitoring equipment to check for the presence of natural gas.

Ohio Valley Gas added fresh odorant at a Riley substation on Friday, so the smell was “a little stronger,” Dean said. Odorant is added to natural gas, which has no smell, so that leaks can be detected.

Superintendent Dan Tanoos credited the school staff and Principal Claire Marchese with doing “a magnificent job of following procedure” in evacuating the school.

In a debriefing afterward, those involved agreed it went “like clockwork,” Tanoos said.

He noted the school conducts evacuation drills with the Riley Fire Department and other agencies.

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