Update (11:36 a.m.): The gas leak is “under control” and the affected area is “open for access to the campus,” according to Campus Safety.
A construction crew installing lighting at the corner of Watson Drive and Bucknell Avenue as part of an ongoing Keck Graduate Institute construction project broke a main gas line early Monday morning, according to an email from Campus Safety.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department, Claremont Police and Campus Safety all responded to the scene. Students were advised to avoid the site of the leak, but the fire department determined that KGI campus could remain open with classes in session.
The entirety of Bucknell Avenue, which is about a mile southwest of Pomona College and just south of the Claremont Village, was blocked off from the southern entrance at Arrow Highway, outside the Extra Space Storage site. Campus Safety officers were turning traffic away on the north side near the intersection of Santa Fe Avenue and Bucknell. Sante Fe becomes Wharton Avenue, which along with Watson runs west through a multi-business office park that includes KGI’s campus.
As of 9:15 a.m., Campus Safety had no additional information on the situation, but expected it to be resolved shortly.
KGI, one of the two graduate schools in the consortium of Claremont Colleges, enrolls about 600 students and focuses on scientific research.