A gas leak outside Signature HealthCARE late Tuesday night forced no evacuations of the facility on East Fourteenth Street, according to the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department.

Battalion Chief Richard Cook said maintenance staff was alerted to a possible leak due to the odor of mercaptan in the building. Mercaptan is an additive which delivers a pungent odor to alert to the possibility of a leak.

Firefighters took readings and called Piedmont Natural Gas. “Since we weren’t getting any (carbon monoxide) readings inside the building we didn’t evacuate,” Cook said.

Cook described the leak as a small one outside the building and the gas was going up into the air.