Buildings earlier this morning on The Green and adjacent to East Delaware Avenue were evacuated with no cited reason, until 11:33 a.m. A UD Alert was sent out reporting a fire on The Green.
Students were told to evacuate onto The Green, away from Wolf Hall, DuPont Hall and Brown Hall as university police guided them to safe areas.
In a statement to The Review, the university shared that at around 11:14 a.m., the university was notified of a gas leak detected at the rear loading dock of DuPont Lab.
“(A gas line was struck accidentally by a contractor working in the vicinity),” the statement read. “All appropriate emergency response personnel are on the scene working to resolve the issue. The University issued an emergency alert to initiate the evacuation of all buildings within the immediate area. There are no reported injuries.”
Students in Wolf Hall reported the fire alarm going off as a way to signify that students needed to evacuate the building. Directly beside Wolf Hall, bystanders could hear the three horn S.O.S. signal coming from the construction site around Building X, signaling workers to evacuate the area.
15 minutes after the original UD Alert, another alert was released correcting the original message, saying that there was a report of a gas leak on The Center Green.
At 12:00 p.m., a third UD Alert was sent, asking students to “please avoid the area of Center Green academic buildings between East Delaware Avenue and Memorial Hall.”
“People started smelling gas on the third floor of Wolf and a few minutes later the alarm system went off telling people to evacuate,” first-year biological sciences graduate student, Tony Zheng, said.
Zheng cited feeling dizzy while on the third floor of Wolf Hall, however students in the lower floors of Wolf Hall did not report smelling the gas before the alarm went off.
“Our psych class was about to start and then all of a sudden the fire alarm went off and we were told to evacuate The Green,” Julzae Hudson, freshman psychology major, said. “I didn’t smell anything.”
Freshman MacKenzie Owens agreed with Hudson, stating that the UD Alerts confused her during the evacuation.
“I didn’t see any fire, so I was confused when we got that alert and I didn’t smell anything either,” Owens, a psychology major and Hudson’s classmate, said.
Once everyone had evacuated The Green, police and UD Welcome Ambassadors began setting up caution tape at the entrance to The Green from East Delaware Avenue and police began patrolling the area.
Despite sections of The Green being completely closed off, students and faculty within Gore Hall, Hullihen Hall and Sharp Hall remained in class and were not evacuated.
Police removed caution tape and left the scene at approximately 12:40 p.m. The university sent a final UD Alert around 12:50 p.m. notifying students and faculty members that The Green was all clear.