[Press Release] : FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Natural Gas Line Incident Displaces Resident - With Narrative

[Press Releases]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Battalion Chief Steven Sapp
(573) 874-7557
(573) 499-7035 (Media Pager - Enter phone number to call - please do not leave a voice mail on the media pager.)

Natural Gas Line Incident Displaces Resident - With Narrative

COLUMBIA, MO (September 30, 2011) - We apologize that the narrative section of the press release was for unknown reasons excluded from the release dated 09-29-2011 at 7:32 PM.

 

At 4:17 PM on Thursday, September 29, 2011 Columbia Fire Fighters were dispatched to 2208 Whitegate for a report of a natural gas odor outside. The caller stated that a worker with using a trenching machine had struck a natural gas line.

Fire fighters arrived to find that a 1.25 inch natural gas line along Whitegate had been severed and was leaking. AmerenMO was arriving on the scene to valve off or repair the line.

Fire fighters began to check for signs of explosive levels of natural gas inside several buildings. While the monitors were not indicating dangerous levels of natural gas, because it was unknown how long the repairs would take, the decision was made to evacuate residents from buildings 2302, 2304, 2208, and 2210 Whitegate. The residents were able to take advantage of the seasonal weather and most evacuated to various parking lots within the complex during the incident.

Fire fighters also took some readings in an around homes on Hedrick and June Court and shut down Whitegate Drive between Route B and Sylvan Lane.

AmerenMO was able to repair the line shortly after 6:00 PM and all residents were able to return to their apartments by 6:15PM. Whitegate was also re-opened to traffic at that point.

No injuries were reported during the event. It is not known if the worker Dan Newkirk had contacted the DigRite to locate utilities prior to trenching or not.

 

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