Large gas leak, displaces six homes in Aurora.
At approximately 2009, Aurora Fire was dispatched for a report of a gas leak. Several callers notified Aurora911 of a “strong smell of gas” coming from around the intersection of Peoria Street and Kansas Place.
When crews arrived, they also noticed a strong smell of gas, and requested Aurora Fire Hazardous Materials truck to assist in locating and securing the leak.
Crews searched all over the neighborhood, to include homes to check for the source. A hot zone of 50 yards was established and crews monitored around the area to make sure readings stayed low and to ensure the safety of the homes around the area. Unfortunately, due to the hot zone size, 6 residences were forced to evacuate.
The gas appeared to come from a sewer vault in the street, close to the original location. Fire crews removed the manhole covers in the street and began using fans to positively pressurize the sewer vault on the East and West of the street, this did help lower the readings found on natural gas monitors, but crews were unable to locate the source of the leak.
This operation continued for hours until the Xcel trouble truck arrived and were able to locate and mitigate the leak. Homeowners that were displaced were notified this morning that they were okay to return to their homes, and to reach out to Xcel Energy to have their utilities turned back on.