Hastings, NE- The Hastings Fire Department dodged a disaster Friday night that could have been as catastrophic as the explosion that destroyed Ben Sherman’s clothing store and a portion of a downtown block in the late 1970s, the fire chief said.
About 6 p.m. Friday, a health care worker was checking on a person living in apartments in the 600 block of North St. Joseph Avenue when she smelled natural gas.
When fire crews arrived on the scene a few minutes later, Hastings Fire Chief Kent Gilbert said, the natural gas readings surrounding the building were of an extreme high level.
“The building would be gone. The building would be gone, physically gone,” Gilbert said of the explosion potential.
“We had gas readings from both ends of it that were high, that would have caused a problem,” he continued. “Had it ignited, it would have been bad.”
The apartment building, which is about 150 feet long by 75 feet wide, had two occupants and only one home at the time of the call.
That person was evacuated along with neighborhood families along St. Joseph Avenue between Fifth and Seventh Streets and families along Sixth Street from St. Joseph to Denver Avenue.
The first goal upon arriving on scene, Gilbert said, was to isolate the problem and the area by blocking off streets and moving spectators a safe distance from the situation.
“It was mainly isolate, open and ventilate,” he said.
The problem, Gilbert said, was that there was no wind not even a gentle breeze to discipate the natural gas fumes form the area.
“That’s been a big hindrence to us because we didn’t want to add any electrical source to ignite it, so we’ve been waiting for things to discipate,” he said.
Fortunately, Gilbert said, the only major electrical appliance that was running at the time was the television, which did not spark to cause the natural gas to ignite.
“And natural gas is instantaneous when it ignites,” Gilbert said. “It goes.”
Initially, Gilbert said, the fire department could not discern if the gas leak was inside or outside the building.
They were forced to break windows and open doors to get into the building where they discovered that the leak was located. The exact location of the leak had not been determined by 10 p.m. Friday.
Both the gas and electricity to the building were shut off very early in the process.
All people that were evacuated from the area made arrangements to stay somewhere else for the night. Gilbert said the streets would be reopened once it was deemed safe.
“And nobody will be going back into the building until we’re sure that it’s secured and the gas leak is identified.”