Toxic fumes lead to school’s closure

A public high school in Pasay City suspended all classes on Monday morning after its students, teachers and employees experienced difficulty in breathing due to what a fire official described as a suspected chemical leak coming from either the airport or an industrial facility.

“Our team of arson investigators is still analyzing the potential source of the scent,” Pasay fire marshal, Chief Inspector Douglas Guiyab, said in a phone interview.

“What we are certain about the case is that the [fumes came] to the school through the air that blows from the northwest,” he added.

Guiyab described the scent as being similar to “freshly laid asphalt.”

Jerean Lee, an emergency medical technician from the city government’s rescue team, was among the first to rush to Kalayaan National High School in Barangay (village) 201 after receiving calls for assistance.

She said she attended to more than 60 students and teachers whose chief complaint was difficulty in breathing.

According to Lee, a noxious odor permeated the five-story building, which made it hard for everyone to breathe.

Odor strong on 5th floor

The odious smell was particularly strong on the fifth floor, she told the Inquirer on the phone.

The situation prompted the school principal to call off all classes at a little past 7 a.m.

Asked about the potential sources of the chemical leak, Guiyab said

investigators were looking into two possibilities—a nearby tobacco

facility operated by La Suerte Cigars or the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The tobacco facility is about a kilometer away from the school and the airport half a kilometer away.

Guiyab said that they would only be able to determine the type of chemical once they trace the source of the noxious fumes.

Investigators, however, were having difficulty because of its intermittent nature.

Guiyab added that he wasn’t sure whether the school would resume classes on Tuesday because “the scent comes and goes so we are uncertain about the situation [on Tuesday].”

However, he posted a monitoring team to observe the situation overnight to help school administrators, as well as the local fire department, in tracing the source of the suspected chemical leak at the earliest possible time.