Firefighters arrived at DRL Sunday afternoon after reports of a leak in the basement. The building was evacuated.
David Rittenhouse Laboratory was evacuated around 12:45 p.m. Sunday due to reports of a small methane and hydrogen spill in the basement.
About 13 firetrucks from the Philadelphia Fire Department including a HAZMAT team arrived on scene. The team investigated and found no detectable leak, according to Division of Public Safety spokesperson Stef Karp. There were no injuries.
The incident was due to a malfunction in the building’s flammable gas alarm. As a precaution, the room’s gas bottles were shut down, Karp wrote in an email.
Nursing junior Meghan O’Neill was working in the multimedia center in the basement of the building when she was forced to evacuate. She said she didn’t hear an alarm in the building, but firefighters came in and told her to evacuate.
The trucks left at about 1:10 p.m., and Penn Police deemed it safe for people to return to the building.
Assignments Editor Jennifer Sun and Sports Editor Sushaan Modi contributed reporting to this article.
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