Monday morning, emergency crews responded to a strong, strange smell on Dothan Rd. at The Play Pals Daycare and Kindergarten.

Bonnie Saville, the Owner and Director for the daycare says, “when I came in this morning there was a significant smell of gasoline.”

Fire officials say the smell came from the next-door neighbor, a BP gas station. Investigators also say, the station had an issue with an underground tank prior to the Monday morning gas leak. 120 children and staff of the daycare had to be evacuated from the building.

Public Information Officer for the Columbia Fire Department says, we got here on scene, the evacuation as I mentioned was already underway. all the kids were able to get out safely. We were able to transport one staff member, because of the odor, complications from that.”

DHEC, The Department of Health and Environmental Control, are still working to determine the cause of the leak and how to fix it.

Saville says, “everybody is safe, the parents were wonderful, they came and got the children immediately. and understand that there’s nothing wrong with the daycare, it’s just one of those unfortunate things that happen. We’ve been here 38 years and this is the first time that we’ve had anything like this.”