The alert was given shortly before noon, this Thursday, January 16, while some of the students were starting their meal. A suspicious smell of gas was detected in the courtyard of the Paul-Gauguin school, in the town of Melgven. As soon as he was informed, the technical services manager alerted the firefighters. The children were brought to safety and confined, some of them in the elementary school playground.
Around 1:30 p.m., the 220 students of the establishment and the 25 adults working there were evacuated to the Louise-Ebrel room and the multipurpose room, located nearby. “There was absolutely no panic,” testified the mayor, Catherine Esvant. The meal service having just started at the time of the alert, the staff brought food to the children, before the parents were invited to come pick them up, around 3 p.m.
During this time, a major emergency response effort was deployed to find the origin of the odor. Firefighters from Rosporden, Concarneau, Quimper and Elliant, as well as the gendarmes, set up a large security perimeter. Their research did not detect any gas leaks. The municipality’s technical services were also present on site. Around 3:15 p.m., a specialist company was called in to check the gas pipes. At 4:30 p.m., the device was able to be lifted, without the origin of the suspicious odor being determined. The school and after-school services will reopen this Friday morning.
Swiss
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