A pumpkin spice air freshener forced a Baltimore high school to evacuate Thursday while officials tried to figure out the source of the strange smell.
The smell originated on the third floor of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and caused some students to cough and have trouble breathing, The Washington Post reported. School President Bill Heiser said the smell seemed to be getting stronger, so he called the fire department and evacuated the building.
Five students and staff were taken to the hospital as a precaution but all were fine, USA Today reported. Hazmat teams tested the air throughout the school and didn’t detect anything harmful.
The teams found a pumpkin spice air freshener in the area from which the smell originated, the Post reported.
Fire Chief Roman Clark told WBAL TV he thought Heiser did the right thing to call them, even though it turned out to be harmless.
“Let us, who are the experts, come in and make sure that everything is safe,” Clark said. “We have no problem with them making this call.”
Classes resumed Friday for staff and students, and school counselor Sylvia Doud said she would be available if students wanted to talk about the day’s events, WBAL reported.
Twitter users were rather incredulous that pumpkin spice could cause such an incident.
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