A Baltimore high school was evacuated Thursday afternoon because of an odd smell, according to USA Today, that ultimately just turned out to be an air freshener carrying the favorite seasonal scent — Pumpkin Spice.
As Cristo Rey Jesuit High School said in a statement on their website, students on the third floor of the building started noticing a funky smell that they weren’t familiar with — and they reportedly told officials that it was getting stronger.
Around 2:30 p.m., the high school’s official statement said “Emergency personnel, including the HAZMAT team of the Baltimore City Fire Department, quickly arrived to assess the safety of our students and the building. Emergency medical technicians evaluated several staff members and students, some of whom were treated on the scene.”
UPDATE: A spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Dept has confirmed the source of the odor was a pumpkin spice air freshener https://t.co/JvYiezuFvJ
— ABC2NEWS (@ABC2NEWS) October 5, 2017
Local EMTs were in charge of evacuating staff and students, and even took five to the hospital as a precaution. It didn’t take much longer for the team to diagnose the problem — realizing the offending smell wasn’t coming from anything immediately threatening but instead from a pumpkin spice air freshener.
Obviously, the high school plans to resume classes on Friday.
While it may seem a little silly now, it’s always better to be safe than sorry (and to call 911 if something feels, looks or smells wrong.) Even if that something turns out to be a wayward air freshener