Westside : Gasoline Fumes Close Preschool

More than 70 preschool children and their teachers fled their Head Start program in the Mid-City area Thursday after complaining that fuel odors caused by the excavation of an adjacent Chevron station made them feel ill.

Officials at the Wilma Gardner Center decided to temporarily close the school after the children, ranging in age from 3 to 4 years old, said the smell of gas was nauseating them and irritating their eyes and throats.

At first, teachers thought there must be a gas leak, but after calling the Los Angeles Fire Department, they decided the odor was caused by the removal of gasoline-tainted soil from the defunct Chevron station next door, said Ramona Stern, a spokeswoman for the center.

Chevron officials said the odor posed no health or safety danger to the children or any neighbors in the area. “There was no physiological reason for them to get sick,” said Amy Greenawalt, a Chevron spokeswoman.

It is normal procedure to excavate the land and remove and clean the soil surrounding the underground gas tanks, she said. But Stern said the children, part of the Head Start program, will be relocated to other sites until the excavation is finished.