Pace’s Dyson Hall of Science was evacuated Monday afternoon due to a gas leak before it was fixed by Con Edison.

The leak occurred in Lab 110, or the microbiology lab, and was caused by a gas ball valve breaking inside the lab, which spread gas across the building, according to Director of Safety and Security Vincent Beatty.

The alarm to evacuate the building went off at around 6:25 p.m., according to Biology Professor Aaron Steiner.

“The windows were closed, but the door was open, and the ball valve itself was broken, and it sent gas all throughout [Dyson] up to the top floor,” Beatty said.

Pace Security called the Pleasantville Fire Department, who after assessing the situation called Con Edison. The Mount Pleasent Police Department also arrived on the scene.

Con Edison disabled the table in the lab where the gas ball valve broke. Maintenance was also called, who will repair the gas ball valve as soon as they can if they have the parts to do so, according to Beatty.

“The table has been disabled at this point, is on its way to conduct a repair, if they can, if they have the parts. If not they will get the valve tomorrow,” Beatty said.

Con Edison fixed the gas leak, according to an anonymous employee of Con Edison, before they left campus at around 7:30 p.m.

There was no class inside the lab when the incident occurred and individuals can currently enter Dyson.

Steiner was teaching a class when the alarm went off and he and his students were forced to evacuate by security.

“I was teaching a class and the alarm went off at around 6:25 p.m., and I told my students to start getting our stuff together,” Steiner said. “We were kind of taking our time, we weren’t too concerned about it, but then a security guard came in and kind of yelled at us to kind of leave the building and that’s when we kind of thought, ‘Okay, maybe something is really going on.’ So, we grabbed our stuff and went outside.”

This is the first time Steiner has experienced a gas leak in Dyson, which is why he didn’t think the problem was serious at first.

“I’ve been here three years and I don’t remember [a gas leak] every happening before,” Steiner said. “Every time there has been an alarm it has either been a false alarm or a drill, so that’s why I wasn’t in a big rush to get out of the building so we got yelled at.”

The last time a gas leak occurred at Pace, however, was in 2015 and caused North and Martin Halls, the Townhouses, Kessel, and Goldstein Fitness Center to have no heat and relocated hundreds of students. 

This is a developing story and will be updated routinely online and in print.