UPDATE: Restoration of Natural Gas Service Started at 11:45 AM in Intervale Road Area

Update, 1:39 p.m.:

Eversource started restoring natural gas service home by home at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, with utility employees starting to visit each of 43 homes without gas and relighting pilot lights for furnaces and appliances.

“We’re moving to restore service as fast as possible,” Mitch Gross, a spokesman for the electric and gas utility said. “We’re reminding our customers that our employees carry I.D. If someone comes to the door, you should ask for their identification [as an Eversource employee] before letting them in.”

Update, 10:39 a.m.:

Eversource now expects the broken natural gas line at the corner of Intervale and Abbey Roads to be fixed and service available to customers by midday, a spokesman for the utility said.

Service was cut off to a total of 43 customers on Intervale and Devon roads, along with Holmes Court and Holmes Avenue at about 1 p.m., Wednesday after a construction crew for a sewer project caused a rupture in the pipe, said Mitch Gross, a spokesman for the company, in an interview Thursday morning.

“There was significant damage caused by that construction crew,” Gross said. The original estimate for completing repairs was about midnight, but there was a further problem Wednesday night as the utility tried to repair the pipe: A water main broke, flooding the trench where the 6-inch-diameter gas main was broken.

“It was that flooding in the trench that really set us back,” Gross said. “The water company had to come in and stop the flooding.”

Once gas service is again available, Eversource workers need to enter each of the 43 homes without gas and relight furnaces, stoves or any other appliances that burn it and do a safety check, Gross said. The utility has sent robocalls to customers  to inform them of this and previous developments, he said.

“We’re asking that the homeowner or someone 18 or older be present during the relighting process,” he said. That will get power restored to individual homes much quicker, he said.

Gross said he didn’t know how much of a danger there was that pipes might freeze after about 24 hours without heat. Temperatures had been forecast to reach the low 20s overnight Wednesday to Thursday.

Update, 8:20 a.m., Thursday

Repair work on a ruptured natural gas line at the intersection of Intervale and Abbey Roads continued Thursday morning and 43 homes were still without gas service after a construction crew on Wednesday punctured a natural gas main.

The incident, which happened just before 12:26 p.m., prompted authorities to warn the neighborhood and suggest an evacuation. By mid-afternoon, authorities said the danger was over.

Eversource, the natural gas (and electricity) utility, shut gas service to about 50 customers in the immediate area as utility crews worked to repair the pipe, a utility spokesman said Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, 43 customers remained without gas service after a night in which temperatures were predicted to reach the low 20s.

Darien police posted this statement on the department’s website early Thursday morning:

The current status of the gas line repair in the area of Holmes CT, Abbey Rd, and Intervale Rd:  as of 0700 hrs on January 7, 2016

The repairs are still on going and the following roads remain blocked.

— Abbey Road is closed at Intervale Road

— Intervale Road is closed at Abbey Road

–Any traffic traveling north on Holmes Court will have to turn right once reaching Intervale Road

As of this time 43 customers remain without gas service and due to some equipment issues the estimated time to restore them is between 9-10am.  The road repair will take longer and is expected to last into the afternoon at which point all roads can be re-opened.

The First Student school bus transportation company was notified of the road closures and they will make the appropriate arrangements for the morning pickups

 

Update 5:49 p.m., Wednesday:

The odor of natural gas from the leak was reported as far away as Noroton Avenue and Middlesex Road, Sgt. Jeremiah Marron said in an interview late this afternoon.

Marron did not have information on when the gas stopped leaking from the pipe after Eversource shut the gas in the area.

Repairs may be completed by midnight, but that’s an estimate from the utility, and it may take longer if there are complications, he said.

Police are relying on Eversource to keep customers informed of when service will be restored, he said. Anyone with further problems related to the gas leak and shutdown of gas service is invited to call Darien Police Department, he said. Police can be reached at their nonemergency number: 203-662-5300.

Update 5:21 p.m.:

Just before 12:26 p.m. Wednesday at the corner of Abbey and Intervale Roads, construction crews and police at the scene could hear a high-pitched squeal, then smelled the distinctive odor of natural gas.

Police went door-to-door to nearby homes telling residents they should evacuate. Later, police told residents in a larger area they should evacuate as a “Code Red” emergency announcement went out over phone lines.

The above information came from Darien Police Capt. Don Anderson, who was at the scene at close to sunset and expected to remain into the evening as an Eversource crew continued to work on the open hole in the road. Anderson said he heard about the squealing sound and smell from officers who were at the scene at the time. (The odor of natural gas is added to it by manufacturers for safety reasons.)

Gas service has been cut off to about 50 customers in the neighborhood on a day and night in which temperatures were expected (by forecasters at The Weather Channel) to sink to 23 degrees (overnight).

Sgt. Jeremiah Marron, a spokesman for Darien Police Department, said repairs were expected to continue until midnight. Residents in need of temporary shelter could call the Police Department at 203-662-5300.

Darien Library is open until 9 p.m. The Darien North and Darien South rest stops on Interstate 95 are open all night and have tables and seats.

Update 3:45 p.m.:

Here’s what we aren’t yet getting answers to from police or any town official:

— How did the gas line get ruptured?

— What company’s crew caused the gas line rupture?

— What was that crew doing when the rupture happened?

— Was that crew aware of where the gas line was located?

— How was the rupture discovered?

— Exactly when did the rupture happen?

— Exactly when was the leak sealed?

Roughly three hours after Darien police first tweeted an announcement that the leak had happened and residents were being told to evacuate, no further statement has come from police or any other town official (other than to say the leak was sealed and the evacuation was over).

Update 3:35 p.m.:

Kirk Ruddy, a resident of Park Lane, not far from where construction crews accidentally opened up a natural gas line, said he got multiple emergency notifications by phone early Wednesday afternoon.

“The phone’s been ringing off the hook in the past half hour,” he said shortly after 2 p.m. The first message he got stated that due to the gas leak, police were asking residents to evacuate an area a quarter mile away from the intersection of Abbey and Intervale Roads.

Then he received a message that Abbey and Intervale Roads, along with Holmes Court were closed to traffic, but that the gas leak had been closed.

P.J. Johns, who lives at 71 Holmes Ave., said he first heard about the leak when he got a call and text message from a friend of his son asking him if everything was all right.

“She’s like, ‘Is your house OK?’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?'” he said. He wasn’t home at the time, but he arrived back shortly before 2 p.m. to find nothing wrong there, then he went further up Holmes Avenue to where police were blocking the way at the street’s intersection with Intervale Road. (Police also blocked traffic as far north as the intersection of Abbey Road and Middlesex Road.)

“You know, when the real emergency calls come, the parents know,” he said. “They hear and they get in touch with everyone else. They do a good job in this town.”

Update 3:24 p.m.:

Although Darien Public Schools officials thought there might be changes in bus routes as a result of closed roads near the intersection of Abbey Road and Intervale Road as crews continued work following a natural gas leak, that proved not to be necessary, a district employee said.

Update 2:47 p.m.:

A contractor doing work for Darien town government punctured the gas line at the intersection of Abbey Road and Intervale Road, said Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Eversource, the utility providing gas and electric service to the area.

The incident caused the temporary evacuation of residents in the neighborhood.

Gas service is still shut off to about 50 customers in the surrounding area, Gross said.

“We’re on the job and will complete repairs and restore service to the customers as quickly and as safely as we can,” he said at 2:43 p.m.

Update 2:32 p.m.:

The gas line has been fixed and the danger is over, according to Darien police. Neighborhood residents may return home, police said.

Some streets were still blocked about a block ferom the intersection of Abbey Road and Intervale Road.

Original article, 1:09 p.m.: Headline: “Ruptured Gas Line in Area of Intervale/Abbey Roads Leads to ‘Precautionary Evacuations'”

Residents in the area of Intervale Road and Abbey Road have been evacuated after a gas line ruptured, Darien police said.

Police are at the scene, as are firefighters and workers with Eversource, the electric and gas utility, according to police.

A drainage sewer project was due to start in the neighborhood at about this time, the Darien Department of Public Works previously announced. It is not known at this time whether or not that work is connected to the rupture.

This story is developing. Expect updates to follow.