A severed gas main triggered several road closures and an order to shelter-in-place in the heart of Canyon Country Tuesday night.
Crews working on a road rehabilitation project along Soledad Canyon Road dug into the three-inch line running north to south at Crossglade Avenue, fire officials confirmed.
Workers at nearby Carl’s Jr. and Jack in the Box were told to seek shelter inside the buildings as county fire crews worked to secure the area around the leak.
A ferocious roar and the faint smell of natural gas escaping was observed around the intersection. Because the main component methane is lighter than air, most of the fumes dissipated to normal levels about 100 feet from the broken line, officials on scene told The Signal.
Emergency crews quarantined the area surrounding the rupture before Southern California Gas Company officials arrived on scene, according to County Fire Dispatch Supervisor Kyle Sanford.
With hoses in hand, fire crews took aim at the invisible threat rising above while utility units fractured the ground below using heavy hydraulic equipment designed to not spark.
The plan to relieve pressure and cap off the manmade fissure soon proved successful. Fire crews reported the leak had been shut down at 10:29 p.m., bringing an end to the two-hour gas guzzle.
Though much of arterial Soledad Canyon Road was shut down between Whites Canyon Road and Luther Drive, evacuations of adjacent homes were not ordered because the risk of explosion did not reach past the immediate area.
The volatile situation was deemed safe shortly before 11 p.m., emergency officials said.
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