Salinas gas leak causes evacuations

Pacific, Gas & Electric crews are working to repair a natural gas leak in downtown Salinas that firefighters were able to contain early Friday morning.

Firefighters received a report around 8:25 a.m. that there was a natural gas leak near the intersection of Greenfield Alley and Gabilan Street.

“On our arrival we found that a private contractor working on street repairs had made contact and ruptured a four inch natural gas line in the street,” Battalion Chief Herb Shoemaker said.

As soon as firefighters arrived at the scene, they evacuated everybody in the area.

“We made sure everybody was safe,” Shoemaker said. “We got people out of the buildings downwind, and then we started setting up a corridor of safety by limiting and eliminating any civilian traffic in the area.”

According to Shoemaker, the contractor did everything safely, by the book, and followed standard protocol.

“I believe there was some mention that the marks may have been off a bit,” he said. “They were doing everything according to their safety procedures.”

The Battalion Chief explained how dangerous gas leaks can be if they aren’t contained quickly.

“The threat is that once the gas starts flowing downwind, if there is an ignition source, it could ignite the gas with explosive results,” Shoemaker said. “At minimum, there would be a tremendous amount of flame and heat generated which could potentially effect the structures in the area.”

Firefighters cleared the scene around noon and people were let back into their houses.