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BARNESVILLE -- Close to 100 people were evacuated from surrounding businesses, apartments and community centers when a gas leak was detected in the area of North Chestnut Street, where demolition work on three village-owned buildings was underway.
Barnesville Police Department confirmed a gas leak was detected at around 6 p.m. Fire Chief Tim Hall spoke from the scene of the accident and said officials from Columbia Gas had arrived on scene and had shut off the gas by 8 p.m., allowing normal business to resume.
"We're demo-ing these buildings on North Chestnut and the operator hit a gas line. It was supposed to have been shut off, but it turned out it wasn't shut off, but it's shut off now. All the danger's subsided," Hall said. "We closed the block down. We closed the businesses down and evacuated the area for safety's sake."
Businesses and apartments in that block and the next were evacuated, and North Chestnut Street was shut down between West Church Street and the main square. West Main Street was closed from the square to North Broadway Street. The evacuation occurred after normal business hours for most shops. Blue Moon Tavern and Home Pizza were impacted, along with the Elks Lodge and the Barnesville Elementary School gym.
"They can go back in now," Hall concluded. "Everything went good. Everybody cooperated and did what they needed to do, I want to thank them for that. Everything went pretty smoothly."