A wing at Oak Harbor High School was evacuated Friday morning because of a gas leak.

At approximately 6:45 a.m., a teacher entered the school’s “B” wing and noticed a strong smell of gas, said Joe Hunt, communications director for the Oak Harbor School District.

He said the fire department was called, they investigated and firefighters aired out the building.

It looks like someone inadvertently left a gas valve on in one of the science classrooms.

“It’s not nearly as bad as it was made out to be,” said Ray Merrill with the Oak Harbor Fire Department. While the incident is being investigated, there doesn’t seem to be anything suspicious.

Hunt said that, while the gas was turned on in the classroom, there is an automated system that shuts down the gas in the building at the end of every day and starts up again in the morning. He said staff are looking at ways to prevent such an accident in the future.

B wing is the home of the school’s science classrooms and freshmen classrooms. The students spent their first period of the day in the fieldhouse while the building was being aired out. Students and teachers were allowed back into the building by 8:45 a.m.