A gas leak at the corner of north Citrus Avenue and Foothill Boulevard led to students and faculty evacuating the Student Services building and caused traffic backups in the surrounding parking lots.
Campus Safety, the Azusa Police Department and the LA County Fire Department blocked off the west entrance to Citrus College at about 11:45 a.m. Oct. 9.
The gas leak was started by construction workers who burst a gas pipe as they were doing construction on north Citrus Avenue, said Buddy Burton, firefighter for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
“When they were doing construction, they actually hit a gas pipe,” Burton said. “As soon as they (construction workers) hit a main they called us automatically.”
Evacuation of the SS building began at about 11:40 a.m.
“We were told by admissions and records, the staff over there, that we were evacuating. We did not get the word from Campus Safety. The director (Gerald Sequeira) came out and told us to evacuate,” said Denise Beatty who works in the SS building. “…We were just told by the president and the CFO that it was safer inside and the smell was better inside than outside. We weren’t told about the leak at all.”
Student worker Victor Ureno was inside of the SS building when the evacuation began. He said prior to the evacuation, he smelled something weird in the building which caused him to have a headache.
As students and faculty from the SS building waited outside, Ureno said there were multiple people feeling sick from the smell of gas. He said people were complaining of headaches.
When the LACoFD arrived to the scene, they immediately began to inspect the gas leak.
“We blocked off the whole street so nobody is walking in here. There’s a guy there, he has a gas meter in his hand and he’s reading the percentage of gas per air, parts per million,” Burton said.
Burton said the fire department did not want anyone in the parking lots on the west side of campus or near the Campus Safety building. The fire department also ensured that everyone in the trailer park was OK.
A fire engine headed west down Foothill Boulevard to monitor the gas and to check if the wind continued to blow east rather than west Burton said.
The smell of gas was prominent on the west side of campus through the early afternoon.
“We have a breeze here,” Burton said. “The breeze is helping us because gas is bad when it’s in… a cold spot. But as long as the breeze is blowing, it dissipates it, so we don’t have that ratio of gas to air mixture.”
