School For The Blind In Oakland Evacuated Due To Gas Leak
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OAKLAND (KDKA) – A gas leak prompted the evacuation of more than 200 students and staff at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind in Oakland on Tuesday.
Visible to the naked eye, the gas rushed from the hole.
Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh's Public Safety Director says, "They [Duquesne Light] were drilling for a new utility pole and hit the gas main."
It was only a nick in the side of the pipe, but the result could not be missed as the high pressure gas escaped.
Hissrich says, "The pressure was so loud they were having a hard time hearing themselves speak on the radio."
It brought the administrators of the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children out to check with firefighters.
"We heard a pretty intense gas rupture at the corner of North Bellefield and Baynard and the smell was significant," said Jillian Pritts, Institutional Advancement Manager for the school.
Hissrich agrees, "They're smelling it approximately a block to two blocks away."
KDKA's John Shumway Reports:
Concerned the gas could pocket in the school across the street from the leak, firefighters recommended getting the students out of the building. But Pritts says once outside, "The fumes were significant enough that we could become noxious and not feel well."
So an exodus of the students began heading for the Falk School.
This was no easy venture, pushing 180 wheelchairs up very steep Centre Avenue.
"The incline was pretty significant and it's a little warm today," Pritts said it took a lot of help to get it done. "Between the hands on assistance from the staff and the assistance from the responders, the police, Public wWorks, our friends at the Falk School, and PAT buses followed us up for the air conditioning in case we needed to hop on."
Forty-five minutes after it started, People's Gas got the leak stopped and began making the needed repairs.
Rather than trying to reverse the exodus back to the school, parents and the buses came to Falk to take the kids home from their very eventful day.
No one was hurt in the incident.
