Boston

Crews Working on Temporary Line for Fiery Gas Leak Fix in Boston

Boston firefighters were keeping a close watch Monday on a fiery gas main break in the city's Roslindale neighborhood.

The fire, which sparked Sunday night in the area of 340 Hyde Park Ave., was still burning nearly 20 hours later. Crews were still working on putting in a temporary line Monday afternoon to avoid cutting off heat to thousands of customers during extremely frigid temperatures.

Four utility workers were taken to the hospital with first- and second-degree burn injuries Sunday evening, according to Boston Fire Commissioner Joe Finn.

"Looking at that fire, it's pretty scary, so I'd say those guys are pretty lucky," said one Boston EMS employee.

National Grid had been working on the gas main line for a couple of days, and then there was a leak of some sort, according to fire officials.

"Basically since this morning the fire department came in first, then National Grid has been coming in about every hour or so to check gas levels,"

said Wanda Moreno, who lives in the neighborhood.

Neighbors say they’re grateful for the heat in their homes, but the flames aren’t something they want to see, and getting around the neighborhood is another issue as well.

"I’m just concerned how I will get to work tomorrow since the busses are not running down Hyde Park Ave.," said Forero.

The fire is "currently contained and under control," according to National Grid, who added that they are unsure what caused the leak or how large it may be.

Usually officials would turn the gas off to solve the problem, but they are working on a bypass solution to avoid shutting off the heat to hundreds of households in the area.

As many as 8500 households could be affected.

To avoid leaving people without heat in the bitterly cold weather, National Grid is planning to run a temporary bypass line around the damaged pipe, tie it in to the main at each end to continue gas to the homes, repair the damaged line, tie it back in and remove the temporary line.

There is no estimate on how long this could take.

As of Sunday night, 12 people from at least three triple-decker apartment buildings had been evacuated, and MBTA buses were brought in to help. The temperature was 7 degrees when the evacuations started.

Officials advised people Sunday to avoid the Hyde Park Avenue area all together. As a precaution, Hyde Park Avenue was closed down from Walk Hill Street to Blakemore Street.

The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and the Mayor's Office of Emergency Managment also responded to the scene with the Boston Fire Department, Boston Police Department, and Boston EMS.

The cause of the gas main fire is under investigation.

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