Pueblo West High School evacuated as firefighters investigate ‘strange smell’, school to resume normally Tuesday

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. (KRDO) -- District 70 has confirmed Pueblo West High School has been evacuated, and students are safely outside.

At about 9:38 a.m. Pueblo West Fire had been dispatched to for a fire alarm that was pulled with suspicion of a gas leak.

A viewer told KRDO13 that parents received a notice this morning that the school had been evacuated due to an "unidentified odor." Shortly after being evacuated, emails from District 70 to parents obtained by KRDO13 showed that the school had an early dismissal and was releasing students because of an unidentified odor.

Fire Chief Brian Caserta confirmed with KRDO13 that the cause of the smell was a gas leak at the campus on the second floor. Firefighters isolated the smell to the second floor of the campus from seals on gas lines that led into the chemistry lab.

Other emails obtained by KRDO13 from the district say the school has been given the all-clear and will resume normal activities tomorrow. But the whole incident still left some parents on edge.

"My first thought was possibly a bomb threat," Brandi Goss said. She had to find out about the situation from her daughter before news was released. "That's how they were acting like the school was going to blow up. My first thought was to text my daughter and ask what was going on."

Parents were initially told not to come to school to pick up their kids, but later an early dismissal changed that. Pueblo West Fire says there is no danger and the leaking seals have been isolated.

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