Bob Baum, dean of students, said that there were no gas leaks in Rooney Hall, either recently or in the last ten years. Rather, the recent gas-related incident was due to a maintenance issue with a pilot light on one of the furnaces.
“The furnace was not igniting immediately but delaying a second or two,” Baum said, causing a smell of natural gas in the vicinity of the furnace.
Baum stated that the issue was remedied as soon as it was identified.
According to released minutes for the April 9 SGA meeting, the problem, referred to as “the natural gas leak,” was fixed.
Rooney Hall resident, Cheyenne Dunbar, senior investment management, finance and international business major, said that her apartment intermittently smelled like natural gas during the incidents which occurred from March 12 to 15, sometimes lasting for hours.
When the smell of gas became strong, Dunbar and her roommates put in a work order. When FMO arrived to examine the heating unit, they were unable to find anything.
However, Dunbar said FMO could smell gas during their visit.
“[FMO] had someone from Peoples Gas at SVC the next day,” she said.
According to Dunbar, the visitor from Peoples Gas walked around the building, but did not enter.
Eventually, Dunbar and her roommates called Public Safety due to experiencing sickness, leading to two visits from the Saint Vincent College Fire Department.
“[The gas] gave my roommates and myself headaches from the smell and made two of us nauseous,” Dunbar said.
Dunbar said that after a few days, an HVAC Technician came, found the problem and fixed the unit, adding that the issue has been resolved since.
To Dunbar’s knowledge, the previously-alleged gas leak did not affect the entire building, only her unit and the rooms above.
Like Baum, Dunbar and her roommates are unaware of any similar incidents taking place prior to moving into Rooney in August 2017.
Photo: SVC Flickr