This post was updated Feb. 13 at 11:50 p.m.

Students and faculty in some lab classes were evacuated from Young Hall after unidentified odors were reported.

Students reported smelling an unidentified odor around 3:15 p.m. However, as of 5:23 p.m., there were no reported emergencies on campus and Steve Lurie, the associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, said no injuries were reported in response to the incident.

Nadia Svejda, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said she was in a microbiology class when she and her classmates smelled gas. As time progressed, the fumes got stronger and she thought the smell could have originated from the bunsen burners in the lab, Svejda said.

Svejda said her instructor, Tejas Bouklas, went to check on the incident and then returned and told students they would be evacuating their lab. 

“Someone from the lab next door to us was saying they could also smell gas,” Svejda said. “You could smell it the entire way out of the building.”

Svejda said she and her group were annoyed because they were put off track from their work with the evacuation. She added that they were performing functional assays – experiments that would take longer than a single lab period to complete. 

Janette Kropat, the operations manager for the chemistry and biochemistry department, said officials used an instrument to analyze the air to determine if it was natural gas – and the instrument did not sound an alarm indicating the presence of natural gas. 

Kropat said the smells were detected across campus, including Boyer Hall and the Center for Health Sciences building. She added that the odors most likely came from outside, with the air being pulled inside by the air supply vents. 

“It could be anything,” Kropat said. “Anything which smells of sulfur or similar to natural gas, like diesel.”

Some lab classes were evacuated and some classes were canceled while some kept going, Kropat said. 

Svejda said her professor did a great job evacuating their class, as they followed safety protocols and returned their bacterial dishes to their respective boxes. 

“They did look like they were making sure that everything was within reasonable safety,” Svejda said.

Lurie said shortly before 4 p.m. that he was not aware of the gas leaks reported near Young Hall and La Kretz Hall. However, he later added in a 4:06 p.m. written statement following the call that the UC Fire Department is currently investigating the incident. 

“We fielded calls and nothing registered on the gas monitor,” Lurie said in the written statement. “No medical aid or injury calls, no evacuation at this time.” 

Svejda said she doesn’t think this incident will massively impact the lab’s overall experimental procedures.

An administrative specialist in Young Hall declined a request to interview for the story. UCLA Media Relations also did not respond in time to Daily Bruin’s request for comment on the unidentified odors.

Contributing reports from Dylan Winward and Shiv Patel, Daily Bruin staff.