140 West Building Evacuated Due to Valve Leak
When steam started to rise, FDNY trucks and Con Ed arrived on scene.
February 5, 2020
On Friday, Jan. 31, a damaged safety valve caused a steam release on the roof of the 140 West 62nd Street Building, forcing a building-wide evacuation and all the building’s classes and club events to be canceled for the evening.
The fire safety director came onto the building’s P.A. system at 6:30 p.m., alerting occupants that an alarm had been set off which prompted an investigation. A second announcement followed five minutes later, ordering all students and staff to evacuate. Small crowds gathered on the sidewalk in front of the building and across West 62nd Street, watching a plume of steam billow from the roof.
Fire crews appeared on the scene but were not called into the building. Con Edison arrived around 7 p.m. to begin repairing the damaged valve.
“It resulted from a faulty safety relief valve that activated,” John Carroll, associate vice president of Fordham Public Safety, wrote in an email. “That particular safety valve was damaged due to the Con Ed shutdown over the last weeks. Our Facilities team isolated that valve and a redundant safety system was put on line providing heat / hot water needed.”
The leak occurred hours after Public Safety announced Con Edison had “repaired the damaged steam pipe that provides heat and hot water to the Lowenstein Center, 140 W. 62nd Street and Martino Hall,” according to an email sent out at 2:30 p.m. that day.
“There was a definite correlation in that the particular safety valve problem caused by Con Ed didn’t manifest itself as damaged until almost 20 hours after the return of Con Ed service,” Carroll wrote.
The building was safely reopened for use Saturday morning, and a new safety valve has been ordered for installation, according to Carroll. No other buildings were evacuated.
Gillian “Gil” Russo, FCLC ’21, is one of The Observer’s virtual vanguards — er, online editors. Previously, she worked as the arts & culture editor and one of the inaugural newsletter editors. Gil is a journalism major/theatre minor who had hoped to write just one Broadway show review before graduation, and although that didn’t happen, she did achieve her new goal to do at least one thing for all 15 divisions of The Observer by then. Other fun facts include that she enjoys dancing and sword-fighting, she can say the alphabet backwards, and she modeled for a French chair catalog one time. gillianrusso.com
Andrew Dressner, FCLC ’23, is the photo editor for The Observer and is majoring in natural science on the pre-med track. Outside of The Observer, Andrew loves taking photos, is an EMT and enjoys rock climbing.
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