The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

May 5, 2009

UPDATE: Gas leak prompts evacuation

By Tom Davidson

PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP — Six homes were evacuated for a couple hours Monday afternoon after a contractor hit a natural gas main at 51 Edgewood Drive in Pymatuning Township.

Transfer Fire Chief Phil Steele said the decision to evacuate three homes to the east and west of the break was precautionary.

The break happened at about 1 p.m. and was repaired by 3:30, Steele said.

The contractor was installing a sewer line when the main was hit, Steele said.

National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. spokeswoman Nancy Taylor said about five customers were without service as the main was being repaired.

One of the evacuees — an elderly bedridden woman whom Steele didn’t name — was taken to UPMC Horizon, Greenville, because she had no other place to go.

Her dog was placed in the care of township officials until she returned, Steele said.

By 4 p.m., things were fixed and “all is good,” Steele said.

“I could smell it,” said Clyde Anderson, who lives about three blocks west of the break.

“I went out the door and you would have thought it was right in the house,” Anderson said of the tell-tale “rotten egg” odor infused into natural gas so leaks can be detected.

Traffic on Edgewood Drive was diverted from 27th Street to Arlington Drive, Anderson said.

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