No natural gas detected in Parent’s Hall, authorities said

by Lórien MacEnulty

Administrators were alerted to a potential gas leak that transpired in the midst of the Activities Fair this afternoon. All students and booth representatives were evacuated from the room in East Parent’s Hall in concordance with Drake protection policy.

“We actually just got a confirmation just now that there is no gas leak,” said Tony Tyler, Director of Student Engagement at Drake. “Totally okay, it’s also okay to come back in the room.”

Kelanie Crosswait, a senior and representative of Arabic club and MEPPA, the Middle East Peace and Prosperity Alliance, said she thought she smelled natural gas while tending to her booth at the activities fair.

“I was just chatting with the guys [next to us],” Crosswait said. “Then I started to smell natural gas, and I was like, ‘Do you guys smell that? That doesn’t seem good.’”

She said someone then took the initiative to alert someone about what was speculated to be a gas leak. The communication got eventually to Tony Tyler, who set into motion the preventative steps taken against this sort of threat.

The security clearance was administered within a half an hour thereafter. Students refilled the room and resumed their regular Activities Fair programming.