KENT, OH — An evacuation of »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥â€™s Cunningham Hall and the neighboring Cunningham Hall Annex has now been lifted after a strange odor mandated their immediate closure.
Staff members reported smelling the odor around 11:30 a.m., and Kent Fire fighters immediately evacuated about 100 people from the building and the annex as a precaution. There were no injuries or road closures.
Fire fighters and investigators from Dominion East Ohio determined there was a small crack in a two-inch natural gas line connected to a generator on the roof of Cunningham Hall. Repairs were completed and the evacuation was lifted at approximately 3 p.m. Further investigation determined that the original odor came from a science lab where a sulfur compound had not been capped correctly, so the odor and the gas line repair were not related.
Throughout the evacuation, »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ students, faculty and staff were kept informed via Flash Alerts (text messages), social media and on the university website. The first text alert was issued at 11:41 a.m.
Cunningham Hall, built in 1968, provides 93,000 square feet of education space for »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥â€™s Department of Biological Sciences. Cunningham Hall also includes an addition that was completed in 2001.
# # #
Media Contact:
Eric Mansfield, emansfie@kent.edu, 330-672-2797