Gas Leak Sends 21 at School to Hospital
Natural gas escaping from a ruptured pipeline in Pacoima drifted onto the campus of a nearby junior high school early Tuesday, temporarily halting classes and sending 20 students and a teacher’s aide to hospitals with complaints of eye irritation and nausea, authorities said.
Students and teachers at Charles Maclay Junior High School noticed a “very strong” gas smell shortly before 9 a.m., Principal Leonard George said. School officials called the Los Angeles city Fire Department and directed students to leave their classrooms and gather on athletic fields, he said.
The 20 students who complained of nausea and other ailments were taken to three nearby hospitals for observation and later released.
A teacher’s aide who is six months pregnant was transferred to the AMI Tarzana Regional Medical Center for 24-hour observation, authorities said.
A contractor’s crew working about a mile and a half south of the school accidentally cut a section of pipe in the 10200 block of Glenoaks Boulevard shortly before 8 a.m., a Southern California Gas Co. spokeswoman said. Gas escaped for about one hour, causing a temporary evacuation of about a dozen businesses along Glenoaks, she said.
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