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Around eight Syracuse Fire Department vehicles and two National Grid vans responded to a call regarding a burning gas odor inside Syracuse University’s Women’s Building Tuesday afternoon. SU’s Fire and Life Safety Services also responded to the report.

The reported odor was determined to be from a small refrigerant leak in an air conditioning unit in the building, Captain Phillip Vogt, an SFD public information officer on scene, said. Responders left the scene at around 2:30 p.m. Maintenance workers in the Women’s Building and SU Facilities will now work to fix the leak.

Vogt said someone likely pulled the fire alarm after smelling gas to prompt the building’s evacuation. When firefighters first arrived on the scene, their initial gas detection meter test produced false positive readings due to the leak, he said. The results led the department to call in additional reinforcements, including SFD’s Hazardous Materials Team and National Grid.

National Grid workers and the hazmat team entered the building with their own meters and isolated the leak. They determined there were no natural gas readings, meaning there was no explosive hazard, Vogt said.

“It turned into a bigger ordeal than it necessarily needed,” Vogt said. “The refrigerant will show some false positive readings on some of our meters that are looking for carbon monoxide and methane gas to determine if it’s an explosive hazard.”

According to a 5:15 p.m. notice from SU’s Department of Public Safety, SFD ventilated the Women’s Building before reopening it. The building has since resumed standard operations.

Published on October 22, 2024 at 6:33 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu