Students, faculty and staff were evacuated from their classrooms in Shoemaker Hall Thursday morning due to a ruptured gas line directly behind the building.
Workers hit the natural gas line at approximately 9:10 a.m. at the construction site of the new STEM building, but the leak was capped off in less than 30 minutes.
Emergency Management coordinator Barbara Russo said no injuries or damages have been reported.
“Everything went like clockwork,” Russo said. “Just like we like to see it done.”
The gas line is a general one used to service campus buildings.
Russo said the line broke right at the fresh air intake of Shoemaker, next to the the heating and air system, so everyone had to be evacuated.
Russo said since it is a smoke-free campus, emergency response workers were not anticipating anyone with open flames near the leak, but the Oxford Fire Department was present until the scene was cleared and the line was repaired.
