Evacuees back home after South Salt Lake gas leak fire kept them away all night

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Families are back home after Sunday night's dangerous gas leak fire in South Salt Lake. The fire forced surrounding homes and businesses to evacuate overnight, but was lifted Monday morning.

The sight of workers fixing holes and the gas line on Monday morning looks much different from the wall of flames ignited by the gas leak on Sunday night.

"That gas can travel along that conduit like water on your sprinkler pipe. … It will find an ignition source and it could ignite," said Terry Addison, South Salt Lake fire chief.

Firefighters said a power line fell onto a truck and started the fire, but as soon as crews put it out, they noticed a nearby gas meter was also on fire. They then discovered a leak under the road.

"Currently, it's in the storm drains and it's in the sewer lines," Addison said Sunday.

The leak forced the closure of the road and a Utah Transit Authority TRAX line. People living or working in the boundaries of 3300 South to 3500 South and West Temple to 200 West were forced to evacuate.

One of the residents, Bernadette Glines, told KSL-TV he had to spend the night in his car. "We were waiting for updates and seeing if we could go home," Glines said.

Other residents went to a nearby American Red Cross shelter inside a meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"It means I didn't have to rely on family for emergency shelter," said Austin Hedin, who was also evacuated because of the gas leak fire.

The Red Cross made the shelter available to anyone who needed it.

"(It's) very important that the shelter is here, so they can order the evac, to have a safe place to come that's warm and you can get some food," said Leigha Westover, Utah American Red Cross community disaster program manager.

As evacuees sought shelter, crews worked throughout the night to find and fix the leak. By midmorning on Monday, evacuations were lifted, and crews had power, gas, and the roads back to normal.

"It takes a village to handle incidents like this and we have that set up and it worked out really well," Addison said.

As far as dangerous gas leaks go, the situation played out relatively smoothly, officials said. Although it caused disruptions and one truck was burned, it didn't cause any significant destruction.

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