A Broward elementary school was briefly evacuated Monday morning due to a propane leak, fire rescue says.
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One person was taken to the hospital following a propane leak at a Broward elementary school early Monday, fire-rescue says.
The health scare happened just before 9 a.m. at Oriole Elementary , 3081 NW 39th St. in Lauderdale Lakes, according to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue. Hazmat teams investigated the call about the smell of propane.
The school was briefly evacuated while hazmat searched for and later “secured” the leak, fire-rescue said. The leak was found in the cafeteria, according to the school district. Fire-rescue says one school employee was taken to the hospital for “evaluation.”
“Following a thorough inspection the school was deemed safe for students and staff to return to their classrooms,” the school district told the Miami Herald in an email Monday morning.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
