Busted gas line clears homes
Marisa O’Neil
Work crews accidentally ruptured a gas line Friday morning, forcing
firefighters to evacuate about 50 people from oceanfront homes for
about four hours and closing Seashore Drive for most of the day.
A backhoe digging holes to put utilities lines underground on
Seashore Drive near 57th Street ruptured a 4-inch steel gas main just
after 8 a.m., sending natural gas shooting into the air, Newport
Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz said. Workers
called the Gas Company of Southern California and the Fire Department
and immediately began evacuating nearby residents, Schulz said.
Resident Mike Scott, whose home sits right next to the rupture,
was taking a shower when he caught the odor of the gas leak. A
firefighter ran up his back stairs to evacuate him.
“I could hear this ‘clunk-clunk-clunk’ as he came up the stairs,”
Scott said. “He said, ‘Get out!’ but I had soap on me and shampoo in
my hair. I said, ‘How much time I got?’ He said, ‘None.’”
Scott quickly got dressed and beat a hasty retreat out of his
home. He couldn’t take his car because the rupture was right behind
his house, he said.
“I heard this hissing sound and asked what it was,” Scott said.
“He said, ‘That’s why you’re leaving.’”
The strong odor of natural gas leaking was still apparent in the
area more than an hour after the break.
Firefighters stayed on hand to make sure the gas did not ignite,
Schulz said. Police closed off West Newport Park and Seashore Drive
between Pacific Coast Highway and 56th Street until well after 6 p.m.
while crews made repairs.
Officials from the Gas Company of Southern California made repairs
on the line and were able to stop the leak just after noon, company
spokeswoman Denise King said. Residents were allowed to return to
their homes at that time, she said.
Norm Hollingsworth, safety supervisor for the subcontractor Herman
Weissker Co, couldn’t explain how the rupture happened but said they
acted quickly when it happened.
“Our workers responded responsibly after what was an unfortunate
accident,” Hollingsworth said.
The evacuation inconvenienced residents, but it was worth the
trouble to keep the neighborhood safe, Scott said.
“If that thing goes ‘boom,’ that’s about $45 million,” he said,
pointing at the block of multimillion-dollar, ocean front homes.
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