by Cris Italia and Joseph Kellard
"KeySpan has been working on the road behind the store," said a Stop and Shop manager. "We had to evacuate the store just for a few minutes, just to be safe." The road serves as rear access behind the store.
The Oceanside Fire Department responded and confirmed that the construction workers digging up the access road accidentally broke the low-pressure gas main. "It was leaking into the machine room and getting up into the store," said Fire Chief John Traverso. "As a precaution, we naturally had to evacuate the store."
Traverso added that it was also necessary to evacuate because if gas seeped through to the machine room and one of the emergency generators came on, it could trigger a spark and subsequently a fire.
"We made sure everything was shut down," Traverso said. The fire department contacted KeySpan and asked the gas company to stretch the hose line. "As a precautionary measure we used fog to help dissipate the gas," Traverso explained.
KeySpan was dispatched to the scene within minutes and shut down the gas lines throughout the shopping center. The fire department had to take gas readings inside the supermarket to determine whether it was safe for shoppers. "At first there were high concentrations in the rear [of the store]," the fire chief explained. "We had KeySpan come in with their meters and just double-check it for us."
KeySpan was able to fix the pipe and turn the gas back on in just over an hour. The incident occurred just after noon, and left some customers shaken. "At first I didn't know what was going on," said Tracy Mallard. "We were just told to evacuate the store and we did. It was just a little nerve-wracking at first because you never know these days what it might be."
Both the fire department and KeySpan have deemed the shopping center safe for shoppers, and there were no injuries reported. KeySpan did not return phone calls for comment.
