Ohio University residents in Gamertsfelder Hall were evacuated Sunday night after a fire alarm was pulled to avoid residents inhaling pepper spray.
Pepper spray was diffused throughout the center of the dorm. Around 7 p.m., students on the third and fourth floors began to have trouble breathing, according to a statement by OU Police Department Chief Andrew Powers.
OUPD ventilated and evacuated the building after Amy Strickland, a student living in the dorm, called that students were unable to breathe.
Strickland, at OUPD’s request, pulled the fire alarm to evacuate the dorm.
"It burned and really hurt your throat,” said Strickland, a freshman studying education. “I was coughing really hard and it felt like I had eaten really spicy chips.”
The source of the pepper spray is unknown, Powers said.
sj950610@ohiou.edu
