(Update: Gas line leak sealed; power supply restored)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Contractors working on a water main project in northwest Bend hit a natural gas line Monday morning, prompting the evacuation of two homes, the closure of area roads, an order for residents to seek shelter and a precautionary power shutoff for over four hours until repairs were completed.
Shortly before 7:30 a.m., news came that Cascade’s 4-inch-wide natural gas pipeline in the 1500 block of Northwest Saginaw Avenue had been hit, PulsePoint said.
As a result, Juniper Street between Portland Avenue and Trenton Avenue and Saginaw Avenue from Quincy Avenue to its dead end on the east were closed, said Dan Derlacki, deputy fire marshal for Bend Fire & Rescue.
Derlacki said in an update around 12:15 p.m. that the gas leak had been repaired and power had been restored to the area. He added that CNG crews “will remain on site for several more hours while they repair the broken line.”
Earlier, the fire official said: “The two nearest houses were evacuated and the rest were asked to stay indoors and close all doors and windows. Since there is hardly any wind today, the gas is rising into the atmosphere and not towards the houses.”
CNG spokesman Mark Hanson confirmed that the line was damaged by a contractor working on a city project.
Hanson said the damage occurred where a supply line connected to a transmission line, causing the leak. Only one natural gas customer was affected.
Derlacki said they asked Pacific Power to shut off power in the immediate area (within a block radius) for safety reasons, but the utility had to include a slightly larger area. The utility’s outage map initially showed about 2,150 people without power, later reducing the number by about half to 1,100.
Derlacki said the risk is “static discharges as gas flows past the pipes and transformers. And if gas gets into a building, we don’t want a piece of equipment to spark either. Neither is happening right now, but out of an abundance of caution, we asked for the area to be cordoned off. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to contain it to the very small area we requested.”
