On April 1 at approximately 1:45 p.m., a natural gas line broke near the Shark Athletics Building, resulting in evacuations until the area was declared safe at approximately 2:10 p.m.
The gas line was accidently hit by an independent contractor who was digging underground with a backhoe as part of the Noel P. Brown Sports Center construction project. The Davie Fire Department shut off the gas valve leading to that line until NSU’s gas utility company, Teco, was able to repair the rupture.
Executive Director of Facilities Management Jessica Brumley said Teco was not responsible for the break and that the university will mark existing utility lines in the future to avoid another incident.
Director of Public Safety James Ewing said better attentiveness by construction personnel using machinery should prevent accidents like this and that there is no further concerns for what happened.
“The safety of the NSU community is our highest concern,” he said. “The university alerted the entire community of the situation and exercised every precaution to help avoid any possible danger.”
The Sharks Athletics Building, the Don Taft University Center, Campus Support Building, and Noel P. Brown Sports Center were evacuated when the gas line was hit. There were also multiple alerts issued by the Emergency Mass Notification System to the NSU community about what happened and when it was safe to return to the buildings. The mass notifications included indoor and outdoor public addresses, building alarms, phone and email messages and verbal commands from emergency personnel.
Davie emergency officials responded to the situation within minutes of the alert. Officials included Public Safety, Davie Fire and Rescue, Broward Sheriff’s Office and Hazardous Materials Management (HazMat).
“The tiered system worked effectively to assist with the required evacuation and to alert the NSU community,” Ewing said.
Ashlee Schuchmann, freshman marine biology major, said she was doing homework in the UC when she received notifications on her phone to evacuate the building. She said people weren’t scared because they were aware what was going on and that NSU did a good job of organizing the information.
“It was really well-organized,” she said. “There wasn’t any panic or anything. Having the alerts definitely helped.”
Lila Munoc, sophomore biology major, was in the Rosenthal Student Center when she received the alert. She said she and her friends didn’t think much of it as first, but a few minutes later the alarm sounded in the building and they evacuated. She said people didn’t really know what was going on at first and they were looking around trying to figure out what happened, but that the process ultimately ran smoothly.
Munoc said a staff member from the Office of Student Activities notified the students when they were allowed to re-enter the building.
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