Gas Leak Cancels Class At Oakland's Skyline High 2nd Time In Two Weeks
OAKLAND (KCBS) -- For the second time in as many weeks, a gas leak has cancelled classes at Oakland's Skyline High School. Fire officials told KCBS they got the report around 9:30 a.m. from the school located at 12250 Skyline Blvd.
Tuesday's incident began when maintenance crews arrived at Building 20 to turn on heating units and smelled gas.
PG&E said it was coming from a main valve that fed the Bunsen burners in an old chemistry lab.
1,900 students were then evacuated onto the football field. At 10:30 a.m. they were released from school.
Last week a contractor working on a sewer project nicked a gas line, causing a leak that forced the cancellation of classes.
Oakland Unified School District Spokesperson Sue Piper said there are reserve days built into the school year.
"The principal was told that it was going to take until about 12:30 or 1 p.m. to repair it and he could not have the kids out on the field for three hours, so he dismissed school for today," she said.
Some students said the odor made them nauseous and others said the disruptions were impacting their grades just as they were getting into pre-college exam time. Classes were expected to resume on Wednesday.