Gas Odor Closes Primary School

Chartiers Valley Primary School was closed all day Thursday after a strong odor of gas filled the building.

The students ranging from kindergarten to second grade spent the day at the middle school auditorium while workers opened windows in an unsuccessful attempt to air out the natural gas.

"The smell, right now, is a little overwhelming," district spokesman Chuck McCartney said in the morning.

Students can be picked up at the senior high/middle school campus at 3:45 p.m. Thursday.

The odor is thought to be coming from a nearby gas line that People's Natural Gas workers are replacing. An earlier report said Equitable Gas workers were replacing the line. McCartney said the smell wafted into the primary school Wednesday and Thursday, but workers were not able to pinpoint where exactly it was coming from.

Crews will have until Tuesday to find the problem because Friday in an in-service day and the students are off Monday for Presidents Day.

Candy Woodall arrived at 8:30 a.m. to drop off her daughter when she came upon a line of kids standing outside the building. She was told to either wait in the parking lot with her daughter or go back home.

“It was really unclear what was going on,” Woodall said.

Students who arrived on buses were taken kept onboard while firefighters from the Kirwan Heights and Presto departments took readings of the air levels.