At 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11, Fresno City College’s 1st2Know Emergency system notified students to evacuate the Art, Home EC, Music Speech and Theater buildings because of a suspected gas leak.

Maintenance checked upstairs Art Room 202 and the water heater closet behind that was where the gas leak was reported to come from.

Firefighters arrived at 12:15 p.m. after they were alerted by a gas monitor that they check every gas leak with. They used a detector in the room and the closet.

In addition to the 1st2Know Emergency system alerting students on campus, an overhead announcement told students and staff to evacuate the buildings.

Video game design major Vianna Jimenez and Biology major Sarai Hill said that if it wasn’t for the former alert system notifying them of the evacuation, they wouldn’t have known about the gas leak at all.

“Even in the classroom, it was really quiet too,” said Jimenez. “Like, not even in the hallway. I had to tell somebody ‘hey, we gotta get out.’ And if the teacher’s speaking, you can’t even hear the announcement.”

Jimenez and Hill also added that despite the fact they got messages on their phone along with the rest of their peers, the system messages were coming in at different rates. “Like right after 12:03. We got ours like at 12:07, and she got hers at 12:09,” said Hill.

Everyone was allowed back in after firefighters stated that it was a false alarm. They gave the all clear at 12:17 p.m.