Gazette-Times

A gas leak prompted to Oregon State University to evacuate several buildings Friday morning, and disrupted central administration offices for about an hour, according to OSU officials.

A leak in Northwest Natural’s source line connecting to the campus heating plant was detected around 7:45 a.m.

OSU Facilities Services worked quickly to contain and repair the leak, but a “significant amount of gas escaped,” according to Todd Simmons, university spokesman.

“There was a pretty heavy smell of gas in the air,” he said.

Facilities Services buildings and nearby Kerr Administration, which houses the offices of OSU President Ed Ray, the registrar, the cashier and other central figures, were evacuated around 8 a.m.

People were able to return to the buildings after about 45 minutes.

Steam service was shut off while the line was being repaired, so the affected buildings were a little colder than normal Friday morning.

Kerr and the facilities buildings don’t have classrooms, so courses weren’t affected. Some committee meetings were disrupted, Simmons said.

No one was injured or became ill as a result of the leak, and there was no property damage. There will be some costs associated with repairing the leak, but OSU officials are unsure at this time of what those expenses will total.

The break resulted from an excess of oil in the Northwest Natural lines leading to Albany and Corvallis, according to Simmons. This caused pressure in the line running to campus to drop, triggering a valve relief that released gas into the air.

Northwest Natural representatives were on campus Friday morning assisting Facilities Services in repairing the leak.