Fire crews said mysterious gas dissipated shortly after
alarm
By Chris Bone Staff Writer
Gilroy – It was more serious than the abandoned bagel left burning in the toaster last year.
Instead, it was a pungent, gaseous odor that floated through the southern section of City Hall about noon Tuesday, and it forced employees to evacuate the building for about 25 minutes.
It happened as a maintenance crew was working on the building’s boilers, according to Gilroy Fire Battalion Chief Clay Bentson.
But as of press time Tuesday, the exact source of the potential leak remained unknown, according to Assistant City Administrator Anna Jatczak.
By the end of the work day, Jatczak said there were no traces of the malodorous gas or any sort of combustible gas, according to detectors used by the fire department.
“We have not been able to confirm anything,” said Jatczak, adding that employees who first reported the smell were in the south end of the building, whereas the boilers sit toward the north end.
A cursory inspection yielded nothing, Jatczak said.
“Even if it were the boiler, that just doesn’t make sense given that the smell was originally detected in the Finance Department (in the building’s southern end), so it’s a little odd,” Jatczak said.
Employees returned to work around 12:30 pm after the fire crew concluded there was no combustible gas in the building.
As employees filed back in, a city facilities worker went in to join the maintenance crew for the rest of the day since the fire department suspected the crew might have knocked something loose while working, Bentson said.
Whether it had to do with the boilers or not, the distinct smell in the late morning caused one employee to pull the fire alarm.
“I wanted to be on the side of caution,” said Systems Administrator Martin Quiroz. “I pulled the fire alarm for a cleaner and faster evacuation.”
Just minutes after Quiroz pulled the white T-handle on the little red alarm box, Human Resources Director and Risk Manager LeeAnn McPhillips grabbed her evacuation check-list clipboard and swept through the bathrooms and City Council chambers to get people out of the building, she said.
Four other evacuation leaders did the same in their respective sectors, and notes were put on the doors so anybody who had been out to lunch would not re-enter.
Three to four minutes later, McPhillips and the 40 or so people she was responsible for were outside, gathered in groups wondering if this year’s culprit was another bagel.
“We’ve got this down,” McPhillips said.
