School, houses evacuated in Dayton after crews break gas line

Multiple homes and a school had to be evacuated Wednesday afternoon when a construction crew boring into the sidewalk ruptured a gas line.

The large gas leak was reported just after 12:30 p.m. in the first block of Richmond Avenue.

ExplorePHOTOS: Homes evacuated in Dayton after construction crew hits gas line

Residents from multiple homes and the Richard Allen Preparatory school on Salem Avenue had to be evacuated due to the high presence of gas in the area, said Dayton Fire Department Director and Chief Jeff Lykins.

CenterPoint Energy crews clamped the natural gas line break less than three hours after the line was hit. Residents were to be able to return to their homes once fire crews made sure gas wasn’t pooling in the area, Lykins said.

Fire crews went into each house to check basements for accumulating gas. They found a concentration of gas in one basement, but cleared it out, the chief said.

“We’re checking to make sure there’s no pools of standing gas,” Lykins said. said. “We’re using fans to blow out any underground areas where pools of gas could accumulate.

“We’re fortunate that it is breezy today, so not a lot of pooling. The leak was obviously below ground which makes it a little more difficult in locating the leak. When it does pool it’s going to pool underground, so we have to get in those lower areas to identify where it could be pooling.”

Lykins didn’t have the exact number of residences that were evacuated, but said it was almost the entire block.