Skyland gas leak results in evacuations

Spectrum digging ruptures gas line

[  By Mark Reaman  ]

Local emergency personnel responded to a dangerous neighborhood situation outside of Crested Butte that could have turned ugly last week.

According to Crested Butte Fire Protection District fire chief Rob Weisbaum, a gas line was compromised while Spectrum, a cable and Internet provider, was working in the Skyland neighborhood on Tuesday, October 13. The company was apparently digging to locate a line when it struck and ruptured a gas line.

The fire department received the call at about 1 p.m. Weisbaum said the workers from Spectrum on site began going house to house immediately after recognizing the leak. Most residents were not home (it was school break) while less than a handful were evacuated. Still, anyone nearby was evacuated as the primary house involved had explosive level readings in the crawl space.

Given that danger, remote digs were done to shut off the gas. Weisbaum said Atmos Energy has a policy about gas levels in the soil and because there was still some present six hours later, it took longer for the area to be cleared.

“Three houses were evacuated as no one else was home at the time. Other owners of the homes near the vicinity were notified,” said Weisbaum. “CBFPD went through all houses we could gain access to check the readings and ensured they read zero. Everyone was on their toes when we realized the levels had reached the explosive limit. At that point, we all backed away to a safe distance. Luckily, Atmos was able to get both lines clamped. We remained on scene until Atmos felt comfortable releasing us and they could continue to work on fixing the problem.”

Weisbaum said gas leaks are not uncommon in the area and the CBFPD has trained to deal with them. “We do tend to respond to a fair number of gas leaks in Crested Butte. Typically, a fire department will deny access and protect the scene until a gas company can come to repair it,” he explained. “We recognize that this time can be lengthy, so we train to mitigate the problem quickly if we can. We have the necessary tools to either plug or clamp certain types of line. However, there will always be a scenario where we can’t. That’s when we deny access and protect the scene. So we work closely with Atmos.”