Gas line work at NYC preschool and day care suspended after PIX11 inquiry

WINDSOR TERRACE, Brooklyn (PIX11) -- Utility work on a natural gas line affected the schedules and the students at two facilities for children in Brooklyn.

The natural gas odor from the excavation and maintenance project was unbearable at times. It caused the closure of a day care and a lockdown inside a preschool. Both facilities are within just a few steps of where the utility work had been underway since Monday morning.

"All of these children," said Ariana English, whose two children attend the preschool, "probably 50 children, are all unprotected, sitting outside," she said, describing what the scene looked like on Monday in the play yard at One World Project Preschool on Vanderbilt Street. The children, she continued, were "three feet from where they're doing work on this gas leak."

She said that the employees on site were wearing hazmat suits and were using thick, filtering masks. It was a contrast to what her two children, who are students at One World Preschool, experienced, English said. 

"They were holding their nose," she said, imitating them, "saying like, 'Mommy, I can't breathe.'  It was just so aromatic. I was just like, quick, let's just, you know, get out of here." 

After her and her children's experience on Monday, English chose to keep her two children at home from the preschool on Tuesday.

The school, as well as neighbors, said that the work was part of a natural gas line upgrade by the National Grid utility. It was using a subcontractor, the Hallen Company.

The work that started on Monday was set to continue all week. The gas line is not only next to the preschool, it's also right in front of a day care, called Bright Learning Stars, which is a block away from the One World Preschool. 

Bright Learning Stars was closed on Tuesday due to the work. Some parents there said that the closure is inconvenient, but worthwhile, nonetheless, to keep their children safe. 

“I have been worried about him,” said Teke Hori, a Bright Learning Stars parent, about his 18-month-old, who had to be home all day because of the gas line work. “Like, what's really been going on?”

One World Preschool was in session on Tuesday, but it kept all of its students indoors.

The school's executive director, Joanne Derwin, said that she and her staff had wanted National Grid to have given them more warning about the line work, and should have scheduled it for when the preschool was closed, during the holiday weeks. 

"Our last day [of school for the year] is Friday," Derwin said in an interview, "and we've really been pleading with National Grid to move the construction until the 23rd so that children won't be in this building."

"They've said that's not possible," she said about her interactions with National Grid. "So that's frustrating." 

However, after PIX11 News started looking into the situation, National Grid made a change. 

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Alexander Starr, a spokesperson for the utility, said:

"Earlier today, while National Grid crews were onsite working, we received a request to postpone work from One World Project school until December 23rd. Unfortunately, National Grid could not accommodate this request for today as crews were in the middle of a process that could not be interrupted.

"However, once today's work is complete, National Grid will postpone all additional work until after December 23rd. 

"This work is required to accommodate an upcoming city project by the NYC Department of Design and Construction."

The One World Project Preschool will be out of session during the weeks of Dec. 23 and Dec. 30.