Residents of 576 Alvarado — a co-op located across the street from the Munger Graduate Residences — were forced to evacuate last Tuesday, Feb. 6, after the building’s carbon monoxide alarms went off. 

After an investigation, R&DE determined that the alarm was set off by two faulty heating units, which have since been replaced, allowing for safe re-occupancy within the same day. 

Students who experienced potential symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure were advised to report to Stanford Hospital’s emergency department in an email sent by the Olive Housing Service Center. There were no reported cases of harmful carbon monoxide exposure or poisoning as of Wednesday, Feb. 14.

The Palo Alto Fire Department, along with Stanford’s Environmental and Health department, and Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises’ (R&DE) Maintenance and Operations Capital Projects (MCP), all responded to the alarm that morning, according to University spokesperson Luisa Rapport. 

Malfunctioning heat exchanger valves within the two heating units cause the leak. According to Rapport, R&DE’s Maintenance Operations and Capital Projects regularly performs preventative maintenance on heating units. 

However, heat exchanger valves are excluded from the parts of heating units generally serviced by the University’s preventative maintenance work. In her email to The Daily, Rapport described the events of Feb. 6 as “an unusual case,” and did not mention any plans to alter maintenance protocol.

Carbon monoxide, unlike other forms of gas, is odorless and difficult to detect without the presence of carbon monoxide alarms. Rapport wrote that “the carbon monoxide detector/alarm worked as designed, alerting student residents to evacuate when low levels of emissions occurred.” According to Rapport, all students properly followed established protocols. 

While the replacement heating units were being installed, the University provided the ten rooms impacted by the leak with supplementary space heaters and encouraged residents to keep windows and doors closed to keep the building warm. 

There have been no reported incidents since.