Western students evacuated after some complain of air quality

ANNA WALTERS - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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BELLINGHAM - Western Washington University students were evacuated Sunday, Oct. 5, from the second floor and the lobby of the Kappa dormitory in the Ridgeway complex after some students reported coughing,

Authorities thought they possibly has inhaled a substance in the dormitory air system.

The area was evacuated by University Police around 2:30 p.m., according to WWU Police logs.

"We had a call of possible noxious fumes in the hall lobby of Kappa Hall," said Sgt. Dave Garcia of WWU Police. "People were complaining of the air quality."

No one required medical treatment for breathing difficulty or other problems resulting from the event, Garcia said.

University Police called in Gayle Shipley, the director of the university's Environmental Health & Safety Department to assess the air quality inside the dorm and make sure it was safe for students enter.

"By the time I got there and by the time the (University Police) officers got there, there was nothing we could find," she said.

Shipley deemed the building safe, and students were allowed to go back inside about half an hour after the evacuation.

Shipley doesn't know what caused so many students in Kappa to start coughing.

"People start coughing for all kinds of reasons," she said. "It could have been some allergen that someone picked up on their shoe or their clothes."

Both Garcia and Shipley said that evacuations for problems with air quality don't happen often at Western.

WWU sophomore Taylor Smith was working as desk attendant in the Kappa lobby when students started complaining that something was in the air.

He said that he talked to about 15 students who were coughing, and said that the air inside Kappa felt like it was inundated [right word?] with mace, or pepper spray.

"It just felt like there was something in your throat and it made you cough," he said.

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Sunday, Oct. 05, 2008

Western students evacuated after some complain of air quality

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