Gas Leak Discovered At East Washington Construction Site
43.086125, -89.36806
Incident Details
Firefighters were sent to a building under construction at the corner of East Washington Ave. and Few Street twice overnight for a suspected gas leak.
The first call came in at 10:12 p.m. with a witness saying there was a smell of natural gas in front of the building. Firefighters from Engine Company 3 did notice the smell on the East Washington Ave. side of the building. They entered and searched each floor but were unable to determine the exact source.
Madison Gas & Electric was asked to come in and assist. MG&E and MFD believed the smell was coming from the main gas feed to the building. Firefighters were advised MG&E could handle this leak, so Engine 3 left it in their hands.
About two hours later, Engine 3 was called back by MG&E to the same property. There were still indications of a leak despite their investigation into the main gas line. Firefighters arrived back at East Washington & Few at 12:39 a.m. There were now three MG&E representatives there trying to find the problem.
Firefighters were asked to search each room of the building, a large multi-family apartment complex. Engine 3 and MG&E started on the top floor and worked their way down, combing every unit and every balcony.
They found two balconies facing East Washington Ave. where the smell of natural gas was the strongest. There they discovered pipes stubbed out of the wall, intended for a gas grill connection, but the pipes were not capped. Natural gas was freely flowing, unrestricted.
The direction of the wind had deceived responders into thinking the leak was down below, but this discovery spared MG&E from what could have been an extensive digging project in an attempt to get to the main gas lines.
In the interest of safety for all working on the site that night, and all who may be showing up in the morning, MG&E ultimately shut off all gas supply to the entire building. They anticipated returning to the site Thursday morning to turn the gas back on and follow up with project management about what happened.