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ACCIDENTAL LINE BREAK SENDS STUDENTS HOME

By Monte Maxwell and Milt Klopper, The Dominion Post

In a replay of Wednesday, Morgantown High Principal John George gathered the student body outside Thursday morning to begin sending everyone home.

A second natural gas leak in as many days prompted George to once again close the school.

Wednesday, an abandoned well ruptured beneath the South Park Bridge, forcing the closings of the school, the bridge and nearby streets.

Thursday, natural gas wafted up from the valley next to the football field, this time from a broken 3-inch Hope Gas feeder line under the South High Street Bridge, Morgantown Fire Capt. Dave Bean said.

A Morgantown Utility Board crew broke the line while digging to move a water line under the bridge, which is slated for replacement, Bean said.

MHS administrators learned of the problem just after 9 a.m., when a few students began filing into the office reporting the gas odor and nausea.

George called MECCA 911 at 9:26 a.m., and city firefighters responded to find the source of the leak.

At first we thought there might be a leakage going into the building, but ... its just the fumes, George said.

Most students congregated on Euclid Avenue, with some spilling onto Grand Street and other side streets.

I moved them farther away from the building today as opposed to what Id do during a regular fire drill, just in case of the fumes, George said. He wanted to make sure no one suffocated.

MHS senior Stacey Johnson was among the students congregated on Euclid Avenue around 10 a.m., waiting for teachers and administrators to tell them what to do.

There was gas in the air, Johnson said. The odor was strongest toward the football field.

Johnson said George announced over the public address system that students should leave the building  much as they would in a fire drill.

No one was particularly panicked or upset by the announcement, and everyone walked calmly outside, Johnson said.

Monongalia EMS paramedics treated one student for a possible sprained ankle. The student took a misstep on the sidewalk on Allison Street, Bean said.

Shortly after 10 a.m., George used a p.a. system on one of the fire trucks to excuse students who walk or drive to school, but warned them to steer clear of nearby Dominos Pizza and Exxon.

Dont be riding around the neighborhood, he said.

Buses began arriving for other students around 10:40 a.m.

Lt. Max Humphreys, city fire marshal, said he and Bean were at first puzzled by the report of a gas leak at the school coming so soon after Wednesdays well rupture had been capped.

We had just driven by the school at 8:15 a.m. and everything was fine, Humphreys said.

Firefighters, suspecting a problem with another gas well in the valley, backtracked along the rail-trail and found the MUB workers and the hole, Humpheys said.

MUB workers temporarily patched the line with duct tape and rags and began excavating around it to expose a larger 4-inch line where the flow could be stopped, Bean said.

Hope Gas was notified shortly after the hole was found. A crew arrived by 11 a.m. and placed a valve on the line.

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 25, 2000

Answers

Above article is in reference to West Virginia

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 25, 2000.