Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Vancouver was evacuated Monday afternoon due to a suspected gas leak.
Firefighters responded around 3:30 p.m. to the school at 5206 N.W. Franklin St., for a report of an outside gas smell.
According to an alert from Educational Service District 112, the school’s after-school program was evacuated due to the suspected leak.
Kids and staff took shelter at the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Church at 4723 N.W. Franklin St. Parents were urged to pick up their children as soon as possible.
Vancouver Fire Department spokesman Joe Spatz said a single ladder truck responded to the school, where its crew spoke with the principal and learned that 25 children in an after-school daycare had been moved to the church.
The principal told firefighters that a contractor in an excavator working at the school hit a gas line. A hazmat crew with the fire department and NW Natural determined that no natural gas leaked into the building, Spatz said.
There was a slight smell in the building, however, which officials vented out, according to the spokesman.
No one was injured or taken to the hospital
