NW Bend gas crew hits line; leak brings road closures, evacuations

(Update: Bend FD details; gas line replacement crew hit line; why power was shut off)

An excavator doing natural gas line replacement work struck and broke a residential gas line south of downtown Bend Wednesday morning, causing a leak that prompted the closure of several streets, a power shutdown and evacuation of a block of homes in the Old Town neighborhood, officials said.

Austin Ross lives right outside the alleyway where the line broke. He said he was watching television when he heard the commotion outside his window.

“Well, I heard a gas leak first of all. Then I looked out the window and I saw a fire fighter talking to my neighbor. Next thing I knew, there was a cop knocking on my door who told me that it would be wise to evacuate,” Ross said.

Bend firefighters, along with Cascade Natural Gas and Pacific Power crews, were on scene of the leak, which occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. and involved a two-inch gas line in the 200 block of Northwest Wall Street.

Bend Fire Battalion Chief Dave Howe identified the contractor as Northwest Metal Fabrication of Bend, doing work for Cascade Natural Gas as the utility has worked for months replacing underground gas lines around the downtown area.

“It’s pretty uncommon, except that they’re doing this huge project,” Howe said. “It’s basically a years-long project, and so they’re bound to hit lines. We’ve had quite a few gas leaks (since) we’ve had a lot of construction.”

A residential block of a dozen homes and a pre-school was evacuated between Wall and Broadway streets and Delaware and Florida avenues, officials said.

Florida and Delaware avenues were closed between Bond and Broadway streets, while Wall Street was closed south of Georgia Avenue, near Florida Avenue.

City officials urged motorists and others to avoid the area. Word came shortly after noon that the leak had been stopped.

Power was turned off in the area — including to the retail area at Market of Choice — but it was being restored during the lunch hour. Earlier, Pacific Power’s Oregon outage map showed about 600 customers without power.

Howe said shutting down electric service reduces the risk of igniting the natural gas by reducing the number of potential ignition sources.

Pacific Power spokesman Tom Gauntt said similar precautions are taken during firefighting efforts or a flood. “For example, a furnace or heater cycling could provide the ignition, to say nothing of a stray spark from even someone yanking a cord out of a wall.”

While the city had warned it could take a couple hours to fix the problem, the leak was stopped and roads also were being reopened during the noon hour.

It was the second major natural gas line hit and leak to affect traffic in recent days. Last Thursday, a contractor on a Redmond sewer project struck and cut a natural gas line in southeast Redmond, closing nearby Highway 126 for several hours of repairs.