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Photo by Westwood Minute/Darlene Wong Cancell. Thurston Middle School in Westwood was the site of a short evacuation of students and staff following a gas leak and electrical outage on Friday, January 3, 2025.
1-03-2025 9:32pm
Westwood's Thurston Middle School Evacuated for Short Time in Response to Gas Leak and Electric Outage
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students were evacuated from Westwood’s Thurston Middle School around 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 3rd, as a precaution following a report of a gas leak and power outage at the school. The issue was quickly resolved, and students were cleared to return to the school building about 1.5 hours later, according to Westwood Police Department.
Westwood Police Lieutenant Christopher Sheehy noted that police were alerted to an issue at the school when a fire alarm was activated at 8:47 a.m. The alarm appears to have been pulled by a staff member who detected a strong smell of gas.
A moment later, police received a call from Westwood Public Schools Superintendent Timothy Piwowar, informing police of a gas leak and power outage at the middle school.
A student informed Westwood Minute that lights reportedly went out on the second floor of the middle school, but lights were still operating on the first floor. Some students reported smelling gas.
Four members of WPD responded, along with Westwood Fire Department’s fire chief, assistant fire chief, and a fire company, said Lt. Sheehy. Eversource Gas and Electric were also notified, and were expected to arrive at the scene about 20 minutes later.
The problem appears to have been a faulty breaker which caused another electronic device to fail. The failure of the electronic device, in turn, caused a gas leak, said Lt. Sheehy.
As part of the evacuation, a decision was made to transfer the students to Westwood High School, on foot. The high school is just a few tenths of a mile and about a five minute walk away. After making the short walk in the cold morning air, the students gathered in the high school gymnasium. They remained there a short while until Westwood Police and Westwood Fire personnel declared that the middle school was safe for a return.
By 9:56 a.m., emergency responders had detected no gas in the middle school building, and students began to return to the middle school from the high school around 10:07 a.m. said Lt. Sheehy.
Students reportedly were surprised but prepared, having had experience practicing for fire drills. The tip off that this was not a drill was that students observed emergency responders arriving at the school after the evacuation had started. In practice drills, students are used to seeing the emergency responders already in place at the school, ahead of time. Additionally, students waited for a longer time outside the building compared to past drills, said one student.
During the event, at 9:20 a.m., Westwood Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Caitlin Ahern and Thurston Middle School Principal Michael Redmon jointly sent families and caregivers an email message with the assurance that “everyone is safe and accounted for.” Later, when the incident was resolved, they sent a second email message stating that students and staff had begun their return to the school around 10:15 a.m.
Police and fire personnel were fully cleared from Thurston Middle School by 10:30 a.m., said Lt. Sheehy.
“We are proud of our middle school community for their cooperation and composure during this unexpected evacuation,” wrote Ms. Ahern and Mr. Redmon at the resolution of the event.
