Gas Line

A construction worker digging at a new building site at Fort Meade ruptured a 6-inch gas line and set fire to a construction vehicle yesterday, post officials said.With flames 15 feet high, the blaze continued for more than four hours from the line that runs along Mapes Road between Chisolm Avenue and Ernie Pyle Street, according to a post spokesman.Although no one was injured in the accident, the fire caused $185,000 in damage to the machine the worker was operating, which the company, CER Contract Co. of Baltimore, called a street cutter.

Baltimore Gas and Electric crews have repaired a gas main break in Severna Park, and are in the process of restoring service to homes that lost gas Thursday morning, a BGE spokeswoman said. Crews repaired damage to a 2 inch gas main on Whites Road, in the Cattail Creek neighborhood, which appears to have been caused by a contractor striking a gas line, said BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy. Two customers lost gas this afternoon, and were due to have it restored once BGE workers could access the homes, she said.

POLICE LOG* Glenwood: 6200 block of Old Washington Blvd.: Someone cut the gas line of a blue 1979 Ford Saturday or Sunday.

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.

FIRE* Sykesville: Engines from Sykesville and Gamber were dispatched to a fire alarm sounding in a building in the 1300 block of Londontown Blvd. at 4:17 p.m. Wednesday. Units were out five minutes.Sykesville firefighters were dispatched to investigate a natural gas line break at Bennett and Oklahoma roads at 2:06 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters discovered that the cap of the gas line had been knocked off. No one was injured. Fire units were out an hour.* Gamber: Gamber firefighters responded to a fire alarm sounding in a house in the 2000 block of Kays Mill Road at 8:51 a.m. Wednesday.

Arnold Elementary School closed early yesterday morning after construction workers installing a pipeline for the school's underground fuel storage system ruptured a natural gas line near the school, county fire officials said.Firefighters received a call about the gas leak around 11 a.m. Students at the school on Joyce Lane were evacuated and moved to the Asbury United Methodist Church in the first block of Church Lane, where school buses picked them up and took them home, a fire officials said.

A gas leak at Baltimore-Washington International Airport tied up vehicle traffic yesterday afternoon and prompted the temporary evacuation of three piers, airport officials said. Construction crews were working on part of the airport's $1.8 billion expansion about 11:30 a.m. when they ruptured a gas line on the lower level outside the main terminal, said Cheryl Stewart, a spokeswoman for BWI.

Gas leak, fire force evacuation of townhousesAbout 12 people were evacuated in North Laurel yesterday morning after a one-inch gas line was broken between two townhouses, causing a gas leak and a small fire, said a spokesman for the county fire and rescue services.No injuries were reported.About 9:49 a.m. yesterday, a worker using a trenching machine to lay an electrical line accidentally struck the gas line, causing a leak in the 8900 block of Pembrook Woods, said Battalion Chief Donald R. Howell.

A Westminster man was flown to the Raymond M. Curtis Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore yesterday several of the fingers on his right hand were mangled in a wood chipper.The man, who was not identified, was working in a wooded area in the 1500 block of Manchester Road when the accident happened, fire officials said. He was given emergency treatment at the scene by Westminster medics and taken to a field onLeisters Church Road where a MedEvac helicopter landed.Officials said the man was conscious and able to walk out of the medic unit before being put into the helicopter.

In Howard County Construction project creates backups along part of I-95 ELKRIDGE - A recently launched 10-month construction project along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Howard County slowed traffic in that area yesterday. Trooper Timothy Aronhalt, of Maryland State Police Waterloo barracks, said two of four northbound lanes were closed between Route 100 and Interstate 895, creating a 2- to 3-mile rolling backup much of the day. No delays were reported in the southbound lanes.