The entire Wise Campus Center was evacuated by Public Safety officials late on the night of April 15 after confirming reports of a gas leak coming from the Mill.
After the evacuation, the Northfield Fire Department was called to the scene to test the building and confirm the presence of the leak. Gillespie Fuel and Propane arrived early the next morning to properly identify and resolve the issue, as well as to conduct “additional testing.” They reaffirmed that “it is safe for normal work and dining operations in the building”, according to a campus-wide notification sent through the NU ResLife (StarRez) at 11:45 a.m. the following day.
While a majority of students were not dangerously close to the leak at the time of the incident, several student employees in the WCC were directly affected.
“After my earlier shift at Dunkin’, I started working at the Mill around 2:30 p.m. I was on the grill,” said Sebastian Mejia Lopez, 22, a corps of cadets senior political science and studies in war and peace double major from New Jersey.
“At first, nothing seemed off. Then gradually, I started to get this feeling of intoxication. I’d get random bursts of energy, which I thought might’ve been from the espresso I had earlier,” Mejia Lopez continued.
His unusual behavior was corroborated by Carlos Escobar, 22, a senior civilian criminal justice major from New York . “Sebastian is a pretty joyful guy, especially in class, but this time was different…he told me he felt so happy that he was dizzy,” said Escobar—which ultimately is what tipped him off that something was wrong.
“Soon after, at around 4:30 p.m., I went and took my break for 30 minutes, and my co-worker took over. Then he started to develop a headache as he was working the grill himself,” said Mejia Lopez. At that point, the co-worker reported to the shift supervisor that something felt wrong.
When Mejia Lopez returned around 5:00 p.m., he said his “symptoms became worse than just a headache: my legs went numb, I had trouble breathing, and my speech was slurred.” He then proceeded to finish the orders on the grill, shut it down, and once again notified the supervisor. They noticed a gas smell, and that’s when Public Safety was called.
However, some individuals began feeling worse after the evacuation. “I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the hospital. I was given oxygen to flush out any gas in my system, and they tested me for carbon monoxide. Thankfully, all results came back negative and I was cleared,” said Mejia Lopez.
Although the leak was confirmed to have started in the Mill, students and employees in other parts of the WCC were also affected. Shelby Roberts, 19, a civilian freshman Biology major, works in the dishroom located in the dining hall—directly above the Mill.
“[The dishroom] has a lot of vents connected to the rest of the building. So whatever’s going on in the Mill or at Dunkin’ often flows into there,” said Roberts.
Similar to Mejia Lopez’s experience, Roberts said she and her co-workers began feeling unwell during their shift. “I started work around 5:00 p.m. It was unusually hot, even for a steamy dishroom. All the fans were on, but everyone felt unusually overheated within the first hour. My co-worker and I both started feeling nauseous and exhausted.”
“Then people in the dishroom began walking out as they really didn’t feel well—although that’s not an uncommon thing for a dishroom. But even in the main dining hall, it was getting pretty stuffy and hot,” Roberts said. “I was cleaning tables when Public Safety came in and told us to evacuate—there was a gas leak, which explained everything.”
Although Roberts didn’t immediately feel the need to seek medical attention that Tuesday night, she said that she started experiencing “really bad headaches” and was “stumbling around a lot” the following evening. When she went into the ER, doctors told her symptoms matched textbook gas exposure cases— but that it was likely just withdrawal. “Basically, my body had already expelled the gas, and I was feeling the aftereffects,” Roberts said.
Several other people were affected by the gas leak—including a Public Safety officer who was on the scene the night of the leak and called out sick for three days afterwards.
The initial incident has since been resolved, and Sodexo operations in both the main dining hall as well as lower-level concession areas have resumed regular activity. Still, some are concerned that something like this could happen again.
In an effort to prevent future incidents, Public Safety officers have conducted frequent gas readings in the Mill with their detection device. Since the leak, the grill has been inactive and deemed out of order As of Tuesday, carbon monoxide readings are reportedly around 2.5–5 part per million (PPM). For context, anywhere from 0–9 PPM is considered a normal amount in a close-quarters work environment with a propane grill, according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.
Gillespie Fuel and Propane, Northfield Fire Department, and Sodexo Operations Manager Lisa Kennedy were contacted for any insight into the situation and how safety standards will be improved going forward—but all three were unavailable to comment.
