Hazardous fumes cause inconvenience for students and residents

Around 2:00 p.m while school was still in session, Brookside Apartment residents were being evacuated from their units causing disruption for both students leaving and parents coming to pick them up.

Stagg students were redirected to alternate bus routes due to the hazardous fumes, while Kohl students were held on campus.

“The fire department knocked on my door and said I had to leave,” Abel Garcia, a resident, said. “They said I (couldn’t) leave in my car.”

Alpine Rd. and Brookside Rd. until the intersection with McGaw St. had Stockton police officers directing traffic, due to a gas leak in the pipes under the intersection of Pershing Ave. and Brookside Rd.

“I have been sitting out here for about an hour,” Garcia said. He, along with others, as late as 5 p.m., awaited information on approximately how long the repair would take.

Another Brookside resident Anthony Murillo said that after speaking with a firefighter from the Stockton Fire Department, he was told that the cause of the leak was that “something came loose because it didn’t fit on the pipe.”

Around 3 o’clock, parents from the apartment complex were arriving with children, asking the officers what time they could reenter. One officer answered, “It is going to be a couple hours.”

Then the phones came out as various people were making phone calls to friends and family, making arrangements for the night.

A man from Kohl Open Elementary School approached a gathering of residents waiting by a gate on the far right side of the complex, offering the multi-purpose room to wait in. In the room there was water, air conditioning, and a bathroom.

Some residents refused, while others took the offer in the building across the street.

One woman who remained spoke with other residents who commented on the dog she held tightly in her arms saying, “Everything else is replaceable, but my dog isn’t.”

Other residents also joined in talking about possessions they had in their units that were of value, and the heartbreak it would cause if a fire had started.

A man and an elderly resident, however, ignored the warning of law enforcement and proceeded to their unit. When asked to halt, they immediately began yelling about why they needed to enter the apartment.

“She needs to get her medicine,” he said. “She is diabetic and she needs her insulin, I am going to go get it.”

A female officer approached the couple and the woman confirmed her need of the medicine, but after they offered to enter the unit or call an ambulance, she refused allowing firefighters to enter the unit to recover it.

Pacific Gas and Electric, along with firefighters and police officers, were working on the leak in the late afternoon so that residents can return their homes in Brookside Apartments.