News

Students back to class after gas odor prompts evacuation

By Patrick Adrian
[email protected]
NEWPORT — Staff members and students returned to the Newport Middle High School building on Thursday, one day after an infiltration of carbon monoxide into the ventilation forced a building evacuation.

On Wednesday the Newport School District announced the early dismissal of middle and high school students at 11:30 a.m. in order to investigate an odor in the building that was causing administrative staff and students to experience symptoms of illness.

An investigation by the Newport Fire Department determined the source to be vehicle exhaust fumes that originated from the high school automotive repair program.

“[The odor derived] from a vehicle that was moved into the shop at Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center,” according to Newport Fire Chief Steven J. Yannuzzi in a press release. “The exhaust from the vehicle entered the hallway and circulated throughout the building by the school’s ventilation system.”

Newport fire and emergency medical personnel triaged 78 people, including 52 students and nine staff members, who expressed symptoms that varied from dizziness and headaches to nausea. Four individuals were transported to area hospitals — three by ambulance and one by personal vehicle — with non-life threatening injuries, Yannuzzi stated.

Investigators using gas-reading meters found no life-threatening levels of carbon monoxide, the fire chief reported. The school was fully ventilated by 4 p.m. and determined safe to reenter.

The cause of the circulation was actually a combination of multiple contributors acting in tandem, according to Jennifer Opalinski, director of the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center.

A significant contributor was the new ventilation system the school installed in preparation to reopen the school amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, Opalinski said. The new system is powerful, which is ideal for the filtration of potentially contagious airborne particles, but also creates a low atmospheric pressure inside the corridors that pulls air from the outside when doors are opened.

Additionally the school’s oil tanks were refilled that morning. Students in some classrooms had opened their windows and the doors to help ventilate the odor, but this influx of cold air triggered the school’s boiler system. The building’s downdraft pulled those oil fumes into the air circulation as well.

“It was a perfect storm,” Opalinski told the Eagle Times on Thursday.

School officials have noticed the pressure issue from the school’s new ventilation since early in the year, when the odor of school bus fumes during arrival would enter the building when the front doors opened.

Newport Superintendent Brendan Minnihan announced on Wednesday that welding and automotive students will still have classes but not work in the shop for the remainder of the week so the school can conclude a safety study.

“In addition to the fire chief, we also asked a representative from the Department of Environmental Services to come to the school and assess the situation,” Minnihan said. “Finally, we are having an individual from Johnson Controls to come today to examine our exhaust system within the automotive and welding programs.”

According to Opalinski, the environmental services representative found no fault for the incident and attributed it to the effectiveness of the ventilation system.

Keeping doors closed as much as possible will help prevent potential issues in the future, though school officials still want to explore other ways to improve the system, Opalinski said.

In a letter on Wednesday to the community, Minnihan commended the entire school community for their handling of the situation and conveyed thanks to the Newport Police, Fire and EMS personnel for their aid.

“Everyone conducted themselves professionally and with great care to help address this situation so well,” Minnihan said. “We can accomplish great things when we work as one Tiger Nation.”

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