It’s a good thing Rico Guerra decided to attend NIU for his freshman year of college.

The Streamwood freshman’s father alerted University Police Wednesday to a natural gas leak near Lincoln Hall, located at the corner of Annie Glidden Road and Lucinda Avenue.

DeKalb Fire Department officials and local police blocked traffic into the affected area for more than three hours as thousands of NIU students returned for fall classes.

An initial assessment of the problem indicated a possible faulty valve in a pipeline transporting natural gas under the east side of Annie Glidden Road, fire department documents stated.

Streamwood resident Vito Guerra said he was moving his son’s belongings into Lincoln Hall between 10 and 11 a.m. when he smelled gas at the north east corner of Annie Glidden.

“When you smell gas, you think someone else reported it. But, sometimes no one else does,” Guerra said.

Geurra and his son finished moving into the residence hall room. When Guerra turned to his car at about 12:45 p.m., he smelled the gas again.

“I went to the guy directing traffic on the corner and told him there was a leak. I was worried it would carry into those apartments,” Guerra said, while pointing to Southview Apartments at the corner of Annie Glidden Road and Lucinda Avenue.

The University Police security officer called the DeKalb Fire Department, which arrived about 1 p.m.

DeKalb Fire and police officers evacuated the Chick Evans Field House and the nearby apartments and businesses.

“The gas leak was not of a high pressure nature. There was not a large volume of gas escaping,” said DeKalb Assistant Fire Chief Curtis Dulohery.

“To have an explosion you must have certain parameters. For it to explode it would have to have been released into a confined area, and then a flame or heat source would have to come into that mixture,” he said.

Dulohery said the danger was that the gas could have permeated the soil and seeped into a confined space in a nearby apartment or building.

“If a volume of gas was in there that reached the proper air mixture and then found a heat source—a gas pilot light on a water heater or a furnace—you could have had an explosion,” he said.

“It was just a minor leak that happened. Nothing hit the line,” said Northern Illinois Gas Senior Communications Administrator Eileen Hlubocky.

Hlubocky said the NI gas repaired the leak about midafternoon Wednesday.