Gas Line Leak Disrupts Downtown Ridgefield

Main Street was closed for about two hours and some residents and businesses were evacuated Thursday morning after highways crews hit a gas line near Market Street.

The rupture sent 35 pounds-per-square-inch of gas spewing out into the air and crews immediately stopped work and called 911, said Ridgefield Fire Chief Heather Burford.

The evacuations impacted those within about a 500-foot radius, including the Ridgefield Community Center. They were a precautionary measure, Burford said, given the seriousness of a gas leak.

“We handle natural gas incidents obviously very carefully,” she said. “We treat them with a lot of respect and we put a lot of precautions in place so that nothing will happen.”

And while Burford noted the inconvenience — she said some some restaurants that utilize natural gas to cook were impacted — it was short-lived and "we're now in good shape."

The crew that hit the line, from the local highway department, was doing prep work for a paving project. They had gone through all proper procedures, including contacting "Call Before You Dig," and all gas lines had been marked on the roadway, Burford said.

A purge valve, the short extension that juts out from the 8-inch gas line, was what was hit, she said. That valve was used when the gas line was put in a year ago — crews send nitrogen through it to force out any debris that may have accumulated during installation.

"It was unexpected and really shouldn't have been there," Burford said.

To mitigate and suppress the gas leaking, firefighters employed a fog stream until a Yankee Gas crew arrived and shut the line off. A fix was in place and the road was back open at noon — about two hours after the leak was reported.