At 5:20 PM on January 9, students and faculty in the Main Building were evacuated to the Dining Hall due to a hydraulic fluid leak in the Stokes Hall elevator, according to an official notice sent to Moorestown Friends School parents.
Prior to the evacuation, the Upper School Boys’ Basketball and Middle School Girls’ Basketball teams were still in the Main Building. Additionally, faculty in an Academic Council meeting and other faculty and staff members were present prior to the evacuation.
There was initially a heavy amount of speculation and confusion among students, as they were directed out of the building with little information. Member of the US Boys’ Basketball team Joshua Carroll ’25 recalled, “We were in practice and [Assistant Athletic Director Ron] Obermeier came in and talked to [Boys’ Basketball] Coach Greene, and then Coach [Greene] said immediately for us to leave and go to Foxes’ Den. There was some panic.”
Student Maya DeAndrea ’25 was in the Field House Commons when “Obermeier came in and told us that we had to leave the building immediately. … Then we got escorted to the Dining Hall [Commons].”
While in an Academic Council meeting in the MacColl Room, directly next to the first floor Stokes Hall elevator, Science Department Chair Jennifer Mosher said that “people in the Academic Council meeting were the first ones to notice the problem and get sick.”
Students and faculty were not aware of the reason for the evacuation in its early stages. It was not until the Moorestown Fire Department inspected MFS and determined that there was a hydraulic fluid leak from the Stokes Hall elevator that students were alerted of the cause.
Two faculty members were confirmed to have fallen ill from the leak and were treated by medical professionals. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Very little is known about how mineral oil hydraulic fluids and polyalphaolefin hydraulic fluids will affect [human] health.”
Upon further assessment of the building, the Moorestown Fire Department determined that MFS will be safe for a full return to campus on Jan. 10.
