Students were huddled outside of Rozanki Hall, the MacKinnon Building and other University of Guelph buildings late Wednesday afternoon, as alarm bells sounded on campus.
Guelph Fire responded to what appears to have been a pervasive natural gas smell, with inspectors working their way through buildings in an effort to clear them and let students and faculty back in.
Jordan Ko, a biomedical sciences student, was waiting with others to get into Rozanki Hall for an 5:30 p.m. exam. Ko said there was an investigation going on inside the building and in others on campus, related to a suspected gas leak.
He said he was not too worried about it, but it would “depend on how quickly it was resolved.” Others appeared to take the incident calmly.
The building was cleared at about 5 p.m. A fire official at the scene said the building was cleared because it was determined the gas smell had cleared. The same kind of inspection was happening in the neighbouring MacKinnon Building.
UPDATE: Guelph Fire reported at around 8 p.m. Wednesday that it first responded just before 4 p.m. to U of G's MacNaughton Building, on a report of a natural gas odour. Five different statons investigated the scene.
Gary Phillips, acting platoon chief, said in a press release that a total of nine buildings on campus reported the odour. A number of other agencies responded, including Guelph Police, Campus Police, and Union Gas.
Each of the subject buildings was inspected and ventilated if necessary. The cause of the odour is still under investigation.