A section of Parkland High School was evacuated early morning Oct. 7 when the odor of sulfur permeated a room in the science wing.

Volunteer firefighters from Woodlawn and Greenawalds fire departments, along with Lehigh County Emergency Management Agency, were dispatched around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday to locate the origin of the smell.

South Whitehall Township police and personnel from Cetronia Ambulance Corps and UGI Gas Services also responded to the scene.

Parkland School District Superintendent Richard Sniscak spoke with The Press about the incident.

"We had a sulfur smell in the headend room, the data center for the school district in C-wing, the science wing," Sniscak said. "The smell was just in the headend room not in the classrooms.

"As a precaution, we evacuated the C-wing but the rest of the building remained operational and we contacted our local emergency responders.

Sniscak said emergency responders discovered the odor was coming from a backup battery that went bad.

About 500 to 700 students were evacuated to either the auditorium or gymnasium.

No one reported being sick and there were no injuries, Sniscak said.

Nicole McGalla, director for Community Relations and Development for the district, emailed the following statement to The Press, "Unfortunately, this caused us to cancel the middle school "Take a Stand" event that was to occur in the high school gym," McGalla wrote. "The event will be rescheduled and the date will be announced as soon as it becomes available."

Volunteer firefighters from Tri-Clover arrived at 12:42 p.m. with extra fans to help ventilate the building.

Firefighters and Lehigh County Emergency Management Agency personnel were still on the scene at 1:20 p.m. ventilating the C-wing.