No cause found for gaslike odor

HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Authorities don't know the source of a natural-gas-type smell that caused the evacuation of two schools and the municipal building annex on North Hermitage Road.
The fire department and National Fuel Gas began getting calls around 11 a.m. Wednesday from people complaining about the smell.
Hickory High School, Hermitage Middle School and the city building annex that houses the Mercer County Education & amp; Rehabilitation Center for children were temporarily evacuated because of the odor.
Fire Marshal Robert Goeltz said the problem was widespread in buildings along Hermitage Road (state Route 18) stretching from Lamor Road on the north to just south of the U.S. Route 62 intersection, a distance of more than a mile.
However, neither firefighters nor National Fuel Gas investigators could find any source for the smell, he said.
There was some speculation that the odor might have been sewer gas or gas from a gas well, but no source was pinpointed.