False Alarm Causes Evacuation, Bus Delays

A false alarm triggered by the gas detection system in caused the school to be evacuated and for high school and elementary buses to run 15 minutes late today. 

Ledyard Superintendent of Schools Michael Graner said the fire department crawled through the entire system of utility tunnels under the school and did not detect the presence of gas. 

“Obviously something is wrong,” he said of the second false alarm in approximately two months.  “They found no problem, which means that we have a problem with the detectors.” 

Graner said the district will revamp the entire system this summer. 

L said that multiple teams crawled through the tunnels for about an hour and a half with hand-held gas detectors. 

“In this case, we found no hazard,” Daggatt said. “We didn’t find anything, we cleared the system and returned.” 

The alarm went off around 1 p.m., Graner said and students were not allowed back into the building until around 2:20 p.m. School is normally dismissed at 2:10 p.m. and the delay caused the buses that carry high school elementary school students to run late.

Parents were notified by the district's emergency phone line. 

“Everybody was safe and they’re all home now,” said Graner. “We are in debt to the fire service, they responded immediately.” 

Daggatt said Ledyard Ambulance and Ledyard, Gales Ferry, Mashantucket, and Center Groton fire companies responded.