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Gas line cut near McKinney hospital, nursing home
Chris Beattie/Staff photo - An Atmos Energy crew closes off a gas leak Monday morning at the intersection of Eldorado Parkway and Stonebridge Drive in McKinney. A construction worker accidentally cut an 8-inch gas line with a backhoe. No gas was ignited and no one was injured in the incident.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
Emergency crews shut down a McKinney intersection Monday morning after a construction worker accidentally cut an 8-inch gas line.
Shortly after 10 a.m., a construction crew was working at Eldorado Parkway and Stonebridge Drive when a worker hit an Atmos Energy gas line with a backhoe, said Stacie Durham of the McKinney Fire Department.
"The worker was able to safely evacuate the area," Durham said. "They left the equipment running over the top of the gas leak."
Firefighters stayed on scene to monitor the air levels, Durham said. Though early reports said residents at the nearby Baybrooke Village Care and Rehabilitation Center and those at the Methodist McKinney Hospital might be evacuated, Durham said that wasn't necessary.
"We're squeezing off the leak and trying to keep all of our customers still in service," said Jennifer Ryan, an Atmos spokesperson, soon after Atmos arrived. "We did lose about 11 customers in the process, but in the next couple of hours we should have it all rearing to go and our customers should be back on."
Police shut off access to the intersection as Atmos crews worked to resolve the situation. McKinney city officials said the intersection was again open and functioning around 1:30 p.m.
Monday's gas leak was the third such incident in McKinney over the past year. An Atmos crew replacing a section of a high-pressure gas line near Medical Center of McKinney accidentally cut the line the morning of Aug. 28, 2012, sending an explosive fire into the air and forcing the medical center to use generator power during a brief outage.
On Oct. 25, 2012, a contractor accidentally cut a small residential gas line in the 500 block of Parkwood Court in McKinney. The gas leak ignited a small fire, but an Atmos crew helped firefighters quickly close off the leak and extinguish the fire.
No gas was ignited during Monday's leak.
Ryan said constructions crews should call 811, a hotline number, before undergoing projects over utility lines. The free service enables officials to come out and mark all utility lines to notify construction crews what's underneath the ground on which they're working.
And, she said, anyone can take action whenever the smell of natural gas is in the air.
"Anytime people smell natural gas, they're supposed to call us immediately so we can send somebody out to investigate," Ryan said. "Whether it be a small leak, big leak, someone cut a line...they should always call us immediately."
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