July 22, 2007

Natural gas leak fills home

       White River Township firefighters responded to a natural gas leak inside a home in the 1200 block of Shortridge Drive in the Olive Branch Manor subdivision shortly before 2 p.m. on Friday.  The homeowner was on vacation at the time and the leak was originally discovered by a neighbor who went to check on a dog at the residence.  The neighbor smelled a strong odor of gas and then called the fire department.  Firefighters found extremely high concentrations of natural gas inside the structure and immediately began evacuating nearby residences.  The gas to the home was also immediately shut off.  The gas company, electric company and phone company were all called to the scene to shut down their respective utilities.  Once all of the utilities were secured, the process of removing the gas from the home was started.  Firefighters were at the scene for about two-and-a-half hours performing ventilation procedures and no permanent damage was sustained in the incident.  The cause of the leak was suspected to be a fault gas fireplace in the basement.

           
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