Chlorine Fumes Send Seymour Students Home

Seymour High School students who cut school Friday were in luck.

After classes were delayed two hours due to snow, the school was sealed off about 10:45 a.m. because of chlorine fumes spreading through the janitor’s area of the building.

School was canceled for the day just before noon. No injuries were reported due to the fumes.

As about 30 firefighters from the Seymour Fire Department responded to the scene, students were either held in an area of the school far away from the fumes or put on buses.
PHOTO: ETHAN FRY
Fire Chief Tom Tomasheski said at the scene that the fumes spread after chlorine delivered to the school for its pool must have gotten wet, causing an off-gassing.”

Personnel from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Emergency Response Unit arrived at the high school just after noon.

Tomasheski said the state crews would use meters to measure gas levels in the school before allowing anyone back in.

Dwayne Gardner, a spokesman for the DEEP, said about 1 p.m. that the crews on scene were in the process of determining what to do next.

Update: Gardner said just after 3 p.m. that DEEP officials had cleared the scene within the last hour without incident and that the school should be open Monday. He said the fumes were released because four drums of chlorine delivered to the school had relief valves that had for some reason been lifted, causing gas to escape.

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org