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2010-02-27 10:55:00 - HAZMAT - USA EDIS CODE: HZ-20100227-25108-USA
Date & Time: 2010-02-27 10:55:00 [UTC]
Area: USA, State of Indiana, Hanover Central High School, Cedar Lake Number of Injured person(s): 45
Damage level: Heavy (Level 3)
Not confirmed information! Description: Forty-five students and two teachers from Hanover Central High School were taken to local hospitals Friday morning after a gas leak from an oven in a home economics room forced the school's evacuation, school and town officials said at a subsequent news conference. Cedar Lake Fire Chief Todd Wilkening said the 15 people with the worst symptoms were taken to St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point and all had been treated and released by 2:30 p.m. Friday. Others with symptoms were taken to St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Dyer, The Community Hospital in Munster and Methodist Hospitals in Merrillville. Wilkening said the majority of those taken to hospitals were located in the three classrooms closest to the leaking valve. The rest of the students were dismissed at 11 a.m., an administration spokesman said. The boys basketball game against River Forest also was canceled. Wilkening said the Fire Department was called to the school at 9:45 a.m. to investigate an odor. ter testing the gym to make sure it was safe, officials moved students and teachers who were experiencing flulike symptoms there to be checked out. Once the decision to evacuate the school of about 2,000 students was made, it took about 45 minutes to clear the building, Cedar Lake Police Chief Roger Patz said. As students exited the building at 11 a.m., dozens of ambulances, fire engines and other emergency vehicles surrounded the school. Friends and parents waited for students across the street from the school in the parking lot of Family Dollar. Some students described the smell as "burnt hair," while others, including Gaby Roggero, 17, a junior, described it as "gas" smell. "I was in science when I smelled it," she said. "I had a headache, and we were told if we didn't feel well to go to the gym, where EMTs were checking people out." Officials shut off the school's air systems, and replaced the valve causing the leak in the home economics area, Wilkening said. About 2:30 p.m. the air systems were back up and officials were detecting no gas readings. Cynthia Singleton, the parent of students at the school district's high school and middle school, said when she received a message on her cell phone announcing the evacuation from the school system, it was "absolutely frightening."
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