Gas Line

Hampstead officials want Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to delay extending natural gas service north into town at least three years to help ease traffic congestion.Town officials would prefer having the gas-line extension timed rTC more closely with construction of the planned Hampstead bypass, which is "several years" off, Hampstead Mayor Christopher M. Nevin said last week.The state has not budgeted money for construction of the bypass, but state officials suggested the program could be jump-started with an infusion of local or private money.

An allegedly intoxicated man allegedly drove into two homes on East MacPhail Road in Bel Air Wednesday night, hit a propane gas line that started a fire at one house and then backed his pickup truck into the other and knocked part of it off of its foundation, according to police. The driver, later identified as Michael Lee Smith, 54, of the 1000 block of Cedar Lane in Bel Air, then allegedly left the scene and was arrested a short time later near his home. At about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, Harford County Sheriff's deputies were sent to the 1000 block of East MacPhail Road, where a vehicle, later identified as a 2001 blue Chevy Silverado, drove off the road and hit a home and propane gas line, starting a fire, according to a press release from the Harford County Sheriff's Office.

Residents and businesses in Locust Point face life without natural gas for heat, cooking and heating water for "several" days after a contractor ruptured a 12-inch main serving the South Baltimore neighborhood, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. About 1,200 homes and businesses were affected by the outage, which began around 10:30 a.m. Monday, BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy said. It is the largest natural gas outage in the Baltimore area since 2005, according to Foy, when about 2,000 customers in Overlea-Fullerton went without the vital fuel for about a week after a water main break leaked into the gas line.

State Sen. Robert A. Zirkin has shown his true colors by taking on Columbia Gas' proposed new natural gas transmission pipeline ("Senator, gas company clash over pipeline," March 3). Isn't it funny that he only fights the gas line when it comes across his property - and then tells the gas company to move it onto someone else's property? He even tried to go after one of the lobbyists' wives with a special bill crafted to only affect her. I thought he was just pompous, but now I see by his disregard for the people who elected him that he is arrogant as well.

A plumbing crew digging a trench struck a feeder gas line on Glasgow Court in Eldersburg yesterday morning, starting a fire outside the line and causing firefighters to evacuate 10 homes, officials said. The accident occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman Brenda Pettigrew said gas to the block was turned off by 11:55 a.m. "A spark from the trench winch ignited the gas vapors, causing the fire," said Sykesville-Freedom District Fire Department Chief Bobby Ray Chesney.

Carrolltowne Elementary School in Eldersburg was evacuated yesterday for more than an hour because of a natural gas line leak. To protect pupils from the cold during the evacuation, officials moved them to the Carrolltown Center mall from about 11 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. while the leaking 2-inch gas line was repaired, officials said. Sixteen firefighters in four trucks responded to help with the evacuation, but nobody was hurt and the school was not damaged, fire officials said.

Contractors preparing to install curbs at an elementary school under construction in Mount Airy ruptured a 6-inch natural gas line yesterday, prompting school officials to evacuate nearby Mount Airy Middle School and send pupils home early. Crews were doing grading work along the edge of an access road to the Parr's Ridge Elementary site, off Watersville Road, when the gas line ruptured about 11:30 a.m., school officials said. Pupils were evacuated from Mount Airy Middle School and were escorted to Mount Airy Elementary School.

A cable television work crew broke an underground natural gas line yesterday evening, producing flames that threatened a nearby house and several cars and prompting the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to cut off gas and electrical service in the neighborhood, authorities said. About 6 p.m., officials said, a Comcast crew was working in the 2100 block of Sugarcone Road in the Summit Chase area of Pikesville when a piece of equipment broke the gas line. Flames fueled by leaking gas reached about 20 feet in the air, and the fire was left to burn for several hours until BGE workers could shut off the gas flow.

Fire and police officials evacuated Maggie's Restaurant and residents of the nearby Carroll View Apartments after a gas line was cut by construction workers on Washington Road near East George Street Friday afternoon.A construction crew working on Washington Road, a continuation of an East Main Street construction project, struck a 1 1/4 -inch Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. gas line at 3:38 p.m., sending 15 customers and 18 employees of the restaurant outside when the fumes flooded the building.

Camp Meade Road near Baltimore-Washington International Airport was closed for more than an hour yesterday morning as firefighters worked to extinguish a fire that ignited when construction workers severed a gas line.A construction crew doing road repairs triggered the fire in the 800 block of Camp Meade Road at 9:50 a.m., fire and police officials said.The fire burned a small grassy area until Baltimore Gas and Electric turned off the gas, said fire department Battalion Chief Gary Sheckells.

A gas leak in Glen Burnie caused the temporary evacuation of about a dozen residents and left nine homes without gas Wednesday evening, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. A fire department spokesman said Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. would likely restore gas to the nine affected homes by the end of Wednesday, and that the residents had all made arrangements to stay elsewhere overnight. The 6-inch gas line in the 500 block of Delmar Avenue was accidentally ruptured about 4 p.m. when contractors were working to fix a water main break, BGE officials said.

A Baltimore County utility crew repairing a sewer drain in Rossville struck a natural gas line Monday morning, which led emergency responders to seal off the area and close the westbound lane of Route 40, according to a Baltimore County police and fire spokeswoman. About 10 a.m., a crew with the Baltimore County Bureau of Utilities was repairing an 8-inch-wide sewer drain under Route 40, also known as Pulaski Highway, near the intersection of Rossville Boulevard when they struck the 2-inch-wide gas line, said Elise Armacost, the spokeswoman.

A gas leak in Locust Point forced the evacuation Monday of occupants of several blocks of rowhouses as well as workers at the Under Armour headquarters. The broken pipe was repaired within a few hours. The leak was reported in the 1100 block of Hull St. about 10:30 a.m. A crew of contractors told fire officials they inadvertently struck a gas line while working on road repairs, fire spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright said. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews repaired the gas line by about 1:30 p.m. There were no reports of injuries.

A ruptured natural gas line forced a day care and 15 homes in Gambrills to be evacuated Thursday as fire and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews worked to contain the threat of explosion, according to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. The fire department first got a call about 1:30 p.m. from a cable or fiber-optics contractor who had been working underground in the 1300 block of Riedell Road when he smelled gas, said Lt. Keith Hamilton, a fire department spokesman. Fire personnel, working with BGE crews, subsequently identified a ruptured four-inch natural gas line, which Hamilton called a "super-highway of natural gases" compared with the more common half-inch lines that bring gas into individual homes.

Renee Washington says she's not asking for special treatment from City Hall. The 58-year-old paraplegic just wants to make sure she and her neighbors are reimbursed for the stoves and water heaters damaged during a Valentine's Day gas main break that caused water to rush into their appliances. "We want to make hot meals for our families," says Washington, a resident of the Southwest Baltimore neighborhood of Mill Hill, who is attempting to organize her neighbors to action. "We want to take hot showers and baths.

Wooden stakes mark the path that a proposed underground gas pipeline would cut through Jonathan Guth's property in Baltimore County along its 21-mile route northeast to Harford County. The project would take out about half a stand of woods that Guth says makes a fine noise and privacy buffer between his four-bedroom house and the main road, and he's not happy about it. "If all that wasn't here, we probably wouldn't have bought the house," said Guth, pointing to about an acre of 50-foot-tall trees along Ridge Road that provide accommodations for deer, cardinals, blue jays, foxes and at least one red-tailed hawk Guth has grown rather fond of. He and his wife moved in 2009 to this spot southwest of Oregon Ridge Park from a more densely populated county neighborhood, in part for "all the benefits of the natural environment.

Ten lunch customers and employees inside the Elk's Lodge at Route 140 and Gorsuch Road were forced from the building when a contractor struck a high pressure natural gas line yesterday.Fire officials said the worker was operating a small Bobcat loader while excavating dirt at the rear of the lodge hall for a new 40-foot by 80-foot patio and struck the high pressure regulator on a 2-inch gas line.The regulator was broken off when a tooth on the bucket of the excavating machine hit the line, allowing natural gas to escape and enter the building.

Eight homes were evacuated Friday afternoon and a section of Waugh Chapel Road closed while Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews repaired a ruptured gas line, county police said yesterday.A worker for Jones Intercable drilling under the sidewalk of the 800 block of Vacation Drive hit the gas line about 3:30 p.m. County firefighters evacuated nearby houses and county police closed Waugh Chapel Road for about 90 minutes, police said.No one was injured in the incident, police said.Woman hurts her head when she falls off carA Baltimore woman suffered head injuries Friday evening when she fell from the trunk of a friend's car while the friend was driving around the parking lot of the Maryland Correctional Institute at Jessup, state police said.

Natural gas and water service have been restored to most of the approximately 1,000 southwest Baltimore households that lost them as a result of pipe breaks Tuesday, city officials say. As of Sunday afternoon, about 25 households were still waiting for plumbers to make minor repairs and relight furnaces, stoves and water heaters, according to Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's public works department. Water service was restored to the area by late Tuesday, he said. Kocher said the house-by-house repair work was running ahead of schedule.

A swath of the Millhill neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore lost natural gas and water service early Tuesday — and gas outages may continue for several days, according to the utility operators. At around 3:30 a.m., while Baltimore Department of Public Works crews were working on a 10-inch water main in the 300 block of Millington Ave., a 4-inch gas line was broken, statements from the DPW and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said Tuesday afternoon. About 100 homes lost water along Millington Avenue between Frederick and Wilkens avenues and Ashton Street between Millington Avenue and Catherine Street, according to the DPW. Water was also shut off at a senior community in the 400 block of Millington Ave. and at Frederick Elementary School.