Four students were evacuated from their Legacy apartment building due to a broken pipe that was emitting gas into their rooms.
Seniors Maggie Thomas, Erin Fidone and Kayla Powers and junior Stephanie Stanfeild said they believe they were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning for several days prior to their discovery of the broken pipe.
“My suitemate Stephanie had been throwing up for two weeks, but was only sick when she was in the apartment,” Thomas said. “My roommate had been sick and Erin and I had both had headaches for about the same time period.”
Thomas explained that she came to the conclusion that they were suffering from the side effects of an emission because she experienced carbon monoxide poisoning in 8th grade and was familiar with the symptoms.
The girls noticed a strange smell coming from the closet containing their heating and cooling unit on Saturday, Sep. 19 and guessed that they had a leak. They contacted their dorm mom, who called public safety. The officers then contacted the maintenance crew to assess the situation. They quickly found the source of the leak and confirmed that there was exhaust in the apartment.
Danny DeRamus, director of physical resources, said the pipe was an easy fix.
“It was a basic broken joint in a pipe,” DeRamus said. “They resealed it and corrected the bent pipe.”
The girls were sent to stay in the Heritage Hotel over the weekend to keep them safe from the gas leak. DeRamus said he is unsure how they were affected by the gas, because the carbon monoxide detector in their apartment should have gone off if the emissions reached a harmful level.
“That’s why we have detectors, to make sure everyone is protected as much as possible,” DeRamus said. “Carbon monoxide detectors are set at a threshold that is safe for humans. In this case, it wasn’t going off, so (the carbon monoxide) hadn’t built up to levels that were dangerous to them. I can’t really say whether they were being poisoned or not.”
DeRamus said he asked the campus fire marshal to have the carbon monoxide detector in the students’ apartment replaced just in case it was not working properly.
According to Arkansas legislation, all homes constructed after Jan. 1, 2012, are required to have a carbon monoxide detector on each floor. Act 146 states that the detectors are not to be located “more than three feet above the floor.”
Thomas said that since the detector in their apartment was combined with the fire alarm, it was placed near the ceiling and was down the hall from the closet with the broken pipe.
Thomas said although she and her suitemates caught the gas leak before the effects of the carbon monoxide fully intensified, they felt unsafe to live in their apartment without a detector closer to the ground.
“Our parents were kind of upset that they were paying for us to stay in an apartment that was making us sick,” Thomas said. “There shouldn’t have been any (carbon monoxide), the detector should have picked it up.”
The students moved back in to their apartment on Monday, Sept. 21. President Bruce McLarty met with three of the students Thursday, Sept. 24 to discuss the situation and ensure they felt safe.
“When we talked to Dr. McLarty, he apologized that it happened at all,” Thomas said. “He was concerned for our safety and he listened to what we said. We brought up the fact to him that our CO detector hadn’t gone off. We expressed our concern about how we would feel better if we had one closer to the floor, and how maybe we could get them put into all of the apartments. He said he would have someone look into that and get in touch with us very soon.”
Later that day, Thomas and her suitemates received an email from Ranan Hester, assistant dean of students, letting them know that the university was going to supply them with a carbon monoxide detector to plug in to the wall so that it would be closer to the floor. The students said they felt relieved.
“I feel like Dr. McLarty was really nice about it and honestly I do feel safer with a detector we can plug in near the floor, because obviously the other one didn’t work,” Thomas said. “Are we worried that it could happen again? Yes, but if it does, this should catch it.”
