Odor causes alarm in Pittsfield Head Bonfires at MCI Winter Carnival likely origin

PITTSFIELD – Just before noon Friday, the dispatch center in Pittsfield lit up with calls from residents who complained of smelling a strong odor of propane.

Folks from Chalmers Street, Hunnewell Avenue and Main Street called the public safety department, but the call that warranted a quick response was from Manson Park School.

School officials said that outside their building, the smell was quite strong.

After an hour-long investigation, including the use of monitors to test the school’s air quality, it was determined that cardboard construction tubes being burned in a nearby bonfire were creating the propane-mimicking odor.

Maine Central Institute students, holding their annual Winter Carnival, were burning the tubes as they worked on outside snow sculptures.

According to Assistant Fire Chief Dean Billings, it had just begun to snow when the calls came in.

“A combination of the wind and snow pushed the smell around and kept the fumes quite low to the ground,” he said.

Manson Park Principal Mike Gallagher said Friday afternoon that he could smell the propanelike odor as soon as he turned onto Main Street, driving from Vickery School to Manson Park.

“We never had to evacuate the children because we determined the smell was much worse outside the school than inside,” he said.

The pupils, in kindergarten and first grade, were taken to the lunchroom while firefighters used monitors to check the air quality “in every nook and cranny of that school,” said Gallagher.

“I was absolutely impressed with the calmness expressed by the children,” he said. “They were just waiting for information and when they were told what was happening they said ‘Thank you very much, Mr. Gallagher,’ and went on about their business.”

Gallagher said that a local propane dealer checked the pressure status of the propane tanks at Manson Park just to make sure everything was all right.

“I’m really glad we took all the precautions we did,” said the principal.

Billings said that before the odor source was identified, three firetrucks and the department’s utility truck went to the school and the surrounding area. Calls were made to local propane dealers to see if any had made major tank fills Friday morning, and bulk tanks at surrounding businesses were examined.

“It smelled just like propane,” said Billings.

Even though the source was likely the burning cardboard tubes, Billings said the call would be officially listed as unfounded.