Downtown shops evacuated

Construction crew breaks gas line in Monmouth

Friday, January 13, 2006

By CAROL CLARK

The Register-Mail

Workers from AEA Construction, Galesburg, unintentionally pulled a retired natural gas service line out of a compression valve in front of Exotic In Nature, 208 S. Main St. around 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

An AmerenIP crew was called immediately but two hours later, firefighters said high levels of explosive gas were detected in several buildings in the downtown and a five block evacuation was ordered. Eight buildings were cleared.

Leigh Morris, a spokesman for Ameren Corp., said a crew from Ameren using a sophisticated detection system checked the sewers and found gas had migrated into the sewer system. The manhole covers on the sewer were removed, and Morris said the wind carried the gas and its trademark order throughout the downtown. The leak was stopped at 4:10 p.m., Morris said. Firefighters monitored the area and determined the buildings were safe for occupancy at 4:47 p.m.

Sherry Ekstrom of Oquawka and an employee of MC Sports, 201 S. Main St., said she first detected the gas odor in her store around 2:30 p.m.

"I didn't know what it was, but we had a concrete truck outside and I thought at first it was the exhaust from that truck," Ekstrom said.

Ekstrom said the gas odor got stronger in her store, so she opened the front door. When she walked outside, she saw an AmerenIP truck and asked an employee what had happened.

"That's when I was told there was a broken gas main," Ekstrom said.

Ekstrom said she decided to close the store around 3:15 p.m. because of the strong gas odor but was advised by an AmerenIP employee that she should stay and keep the front and back doors open.

"The fire department told us to evacuate at 4 p.m.," she said. "It was scary; no one told us anything."

Andy Jackson, public works director for Environmental Management Corp., the St. Louis-based firm that operates Monmouth's Public Works Department, said the construction crew called AmerenIP as soon as the line was pulled and AmerenIP workers were at the scene in "a very short period of time."

The construction crew called the power company, but no one contacted the city. The first Monmouth firefighters knew of the gas leak was about 3:30 p.m. when dispatchers at the Public Safety Building received a complaint about an odor around the Warren County Public Library.

Within minutes firefighters had blocked off access to the east and north access to the Public Square and Monmouth Police were called for traffic control.

The gas odor was very evident in the 100 block of North Main Street between 3:30 and 4 p.m.

Morris said natural gas is odorless but is infused with a substance called "mercoptin," which he said was "one of the most powerful ordorants - it stinks."

Jackson said AEH was working on installation of a new water line on South Main Street.

Mike Collins, inspector for Missman, Stanley and Associates, said the construction crew was digging a "fire line" to go into Exotic By Nature, when an unmarked service line to a vacant lot on the east side of the street was pulled. Collins said the 6-inch water line into Exotic By Nature was for a sprinkler system.