Gas leak forces evacuations Monday morning in Dover
DOVER (WJER) (Sept. 23, 2024) – Firefighters say residents had to stay away from their homes in one neighborhood for about an hour this morning because of a gas leak.
There were no injuries or fires.
Fire Captain Joe Minocchi says police started evacuating homes near the intersection of Hillcrest Drive Northwest and State Route 39 after a city water crew struck a two-inch intermediate service gas line just before 10:30 a.m.
“The pressure on that line is about 90 PSI,” said Minocchi. “The gas line was split open. The gas was coming out.”
“We wanted to make sure that if it was to have caught fire, we weren’t sure how big of a fire we were going to have and how much would be involved,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we had enough evacuation, especially with as dry as it is, that we didn’t have a situation that got out of hand real quick,” he said.
Minocchi says workers from the Enbridge gas company were called to shut off the line and make repairs.
The all-clear was given at approximately 11:30 a.m. State Route 39 was also closed nearby as this was happening.