Gas leak evacuates Saugus voting precinct

SAUGUS – A gas leak at Lynnhurst Elementary School Tuesday threw a small curveball at the town?s recall election.The leak at the Elm Street school resulted in the evacuation of students to Saugus High School and voters to Town Hall, which became the precinct 5 voting place for the rest of the day.Deputy Fire Chief Michael C. Newbury said he requested that National Grid respond after Tom Dinocco of the Sewer Department initially smelled the gas.Principal Michael Mondello said as the odor increased, National Grid arrived with the Fire Department and asked people to wait outside of the school while gas levels were tested. As a precaution, students and voters were sent to the high school and Town Hall, respectively.?There was no evidence of gas inside the school, but we evacuated people, just to be safe,” Mondello said. “Everyone did a remarkable job getting out of the building in the blink of an eye.”Mondello said 254 students in grades K-5 and 27 full-time teachers were inside the building Tuesday. Voters were inside the school?s gymnasium with a separate entrance and exit.?As far as the voting shuffle, other than trying to get voting booths and ballots out, it didn?t affect dismissal too much,” Mondello said. “Parents showed concern as far as safety and making sure their kids went home with the right people. They were dismissed at noon so parents had time to make arrangements to pick them up.”Mondello went back to the school at 2:15 p.m. Superintendent Michael Tempesta, after consulting with fire chief Donald McQuaid, said the school would reopen Wednesday.Newbury said he was impressed at the speed of which the crisis plan was carried out. He also credited poll workers for a quick evacuation.?We were there from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., but the staff and principal calmed everyone down in an appropriate manner so they could evacuate and move to the high school,” Newbury said.McQuaid said there were a half-dozen voters and workers in the gymnasium at the polls when he arrived at 10:45 a.m.?The DPW came down, and they were able to get the voting booth out of there relatively quickly,” McQuaid said. “No day is a good day for this to happen, but the fact that it was voting day made it more interesting.”