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Gas leak causes evacuation
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - November 21, 2007)
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STAFF PHOTO BY MAGGIE FAZELI FARD
Students were evacuated from Pascack Valley High School last week due to a gas leak.
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When a custodian smelled gas in
Pascack
Valley
High School last Thursday morning, it was mere moments before more than a thousand
Pascack
Valley
High School students and staff trudged through rain and mud to
Meadowbrook
School .
“I heard the head custodian say over the radio that he smelled gas, and the alarm was pulled,” said Principal Barbara Sapienza.
She said the school followed its evacuation plan and promptly moved down Piermont Road to Meadowbrook before parents were notified via Reverse 911. A notice was later posted on the district Web site.
“The very first thing was to evacuate the kids,” she said. “I’m moving 1,200 people out of the building. I’m not going to stop at my computer.”
According to Sapienza, police and fire departments from Hillsdale, Park Ridge, River Vale, Westwood and
Woodcliff
Lake responded to the scene, and PSE&G arrived to search for the leak. The utilities company had visited the school the previous evening when, during a run-through of the school play, someone smelled gas. The school was evacuated, but PSE&G found no leak.
The company had better luck Thursday morning and traced the leak to loose pipe fittings in the basement.
The school was deemed unsafe for reentry by utility and emergency services personnel, and students were dismissed shortly before noon. PSE&G conducted necessary repairs, clearing the site around 1:40 p.m. The school’s football team conducted practice that afternoon, the play opened that evening as planned, and school was back in session Friday morning.
All in all, Sapienza was pleased with how the situation was handled. “It went very smoothly.”
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com
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