Construction crews inadvertently ruptured a Santa Monica gas main Friday morning, prompting responses from several agencies and snarling traffic in the area.
A gas main in the 1600 block of Cloverfield Boulevard, between Olympic Boulevard and Colorado Avenue, was accidentally broken at about 10:15 a.m. The line in question is approximately 6 feet below surface level on the west side of the street.
“It was a pretty large line in the street that was ruptured during construction,” said Mike McElvaney, battalion chief with the Santa Monica Fire Department. “They were doing some digging, hit the line and ruptured it.”
The Southern California Gas Company and the local police and fire departments responded to the scene, officials said. The fire department’s team included 19 people with three engines, a truck company and a hazardous materials unit, which McElvaney said is standard for a potential gas leak.
No injuries were reported, although first responders evaluated one construction worker who McElvaney said got “a face-full of gas.” No evacuations were ordered.
Within an hour, the City of Santa Monica sent out an alert notifying citizens of road closures in the area, a high-traffic point in the city. Cloverfield was closed between Colorado and Olympic for several hours, but Olympic remained open in both directions. The scene was clear by Friday afternoon.
