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With cases closed in recent dorm evacuations, some students left wondering

The investigations are over in the cases of two Cal Poly dorm buildings that were evacuated in late January after students reported uncontrollable coughing.

The two incidents occurred within a week of each other. The first case was reported in Santa Lucia Hall on Jan.25  and the second in Fremont Hall on Jan. 31.

Ernie Paez is a Division Chief with the Office of the State Fire Marshall and says during both incidents the hazmat teams did what they were trained to do. They took a reading of the air using their monitors, but didn't find anything.

Students living in Santa Lucia began calling freshman Shane Kent 'patient zero' because he was the first person to report feeling this coughing sensation.

"I was walking down towards my room and when I got probably about two or three feet away from my door, one of my friends walked out of my room and we both start talking and all the sudden I just start coughing uncontrollably," said Kent. "And, she's kind of shocked and she starts to walk towards me. All the sudden she starts coughing as well."

"Neither of us had any symptoms before this, of say, a scratchy throat or anything. It was just all the sudden we both started to cough."

Kent said that after the incident he and others living in the dorm hall have not heard about the state of the investigation.

Chief Paez said that that is because unlike a fire, there's nothing visual in these cases that can help them figure out what may have happened.

"The case is closed, so there's really nothing more the police department is going to do, because there's really nothing to look for at this point. It could have been malicious, but it's hard to say," said Chief Paez.

During the second incident the fire department found a can of pepper spray in the dumpster next to Fremont Hall.

Shane Kent says he and others living in Santa Lucia are still curious as to what may have happened in their hall.