D’ville Primary School evacuated due to gas

The Donaldsonville Primary School was evacuated Tuesday around 1:30 p.m. due to a five percent detecting of gas in the air on the gas monitor, according Floyd Foster, city of Donaldsonville gas department. DPS principal Mary McMahan smelled the gas, called the gas department and was recommended to evacuate the students into the parking lot and eventually away from the campus.

When Foster got there and detected the high gas percentage, he recommended McMahan to evacuate the kids and so she called the bus drivers and had the students and teachers transported to LMS. McMahan said the bus drivers got there immediately, before she could even finish calling them she felt like.

McMahan, her secretary and the custodian stayed behind. The school was closed for the remainder of the day. No one was hurt or injured in the evacuation process and the student’s parents were notified. The Donaldsonville Fire Department was on the scene and fire chief Chuck Montero monitored the situation to ensure safety.

The gas smells were coming from the 500 corridor and the 300 corridor of the school and the Ascension Parish School Board gas maintenance crew went up on top of the roof to check the gas line that runs across the roof of the school to find out exactly where the smell is coming from. They found where it was coming from it got in under control. Jeff Parent, head of the APS maintenance said everything was under control and the kids were able to return to school the next day.

“You can never be too careful when it comes to the safety of our kids,” McMahan said.

McMahan thanked everyone for acting and responding quickly and was glad the situation was resolved.