Gas Leak Forces Evacuation of FDL Neighborhood

Just a day after a gas leak cause a deadly blast in Sun Prairie, Fond du Lac firefighters responded to a leaking gas line along the 300-block of Star Street. Contractors working in the area punctured the line around 10:00am Wednesday morning. 

Fire Chief Peter O’Leary says “they hit a main, didn’t know they were going to hit it. But again, the
first thing to do is to stop what they’re doing, call 911, and evacuate people
as fast as they can.”

O’Leary adds that if something like this happens, workers need to “heighten awareness and take it seriously. We evacuate people as a precaution because if the thing does happen to backfeed into a residence, a flip of a light switch would be enough to – would have enough concentration to totally level and entire home.”

He adds that it’s not necessarily a rare occurrence for lines to break, because “these services get replaced frequently and often times it goes off
without a hitch. Even now and again something happens. We work in a great
partnership with Alliant Energy. So we work together, we know what they want us
to do and they know what our capabilities are.”

Fond du Lac Fire and Rescue, along with Alliant Energy spent several hours on scene monitoring gas levels in the area and supervising while the line was capped. About thirty customers had their gas shut off until later in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the surrounding area was lifted around noon. Nobody was injured.