Gas Line

Gas line rupture closes portion of Ritchie Highway A gas line rupture closed a portion of Ritchie Highway in Pasadena for about 90 minutes yesterday afternoon, authorities said. Contractors installing a guardrail near Pasadena Road hit the natural gas line about 1:30 p.m., but Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews repaired the pipe before firefighters had to evacuate a school and an adult day care center nearby, said Anne Arundel County Fire Division Chief John M. Scholz. Authorities said the road closing caused traffic congestion nearby.

The number of homes and businesses affected by a combination water-main break and leaking gas line in Overlea grew to 1,600 yesterday after officials with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. discovered that water had gotten into a gas main along Belair Road. Water was restored to about 210 homes and 13 businesses late Saturday, hours after the dual breaks, which caused several furnace fires on Cardwell Avenue, were discovered. But restoring gas has been much more difficult, said BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy. Utility workers initially found water in a damaged 6-inch gas line on Cardwell Avenue.

Carroll County Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown has asked county staff members to draft statewide legislation that would -- implement safeguards to prevent an explosion such as the one that blew up a Westminster house in January.Mr. Brown said that anyone digging trenches near utility lines should be state-licensed and that anyone working in a state or county right-of-way should be required to expose utility lines before drilling.The commissioner asked staff members to draft the safety legislation for introduction in the 1996 General Assembly.

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 38-year-old Sykesville woman was taken to Carroll County General Hospital after the car she was driving struck and went under a Ford pickup truck at Routes 97 and 32 about 4:20 p.m. yesterday, police said.Cynthia Lee Baker of the 1600 block of Heather Heights Road was extricated from her 1993 Chevrolet Lumina by the Westminster Fire Company rescue crew. She did not appear to be seriously injured, a spokesman said. Her condition was not immediately available from the hospital.State police said she was driving south on Route 97 when her car ran into the right side of a northbound 1994 Ford pickup truck that was making a left turn onto Route 32.The Ford was driven by Fred Leighton Michell, 35, of Virginia.

Carroll County will receive $7,578 in grants under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act for the training of hazardous materials technicians, firefighters and medic crews, it was announced this week.The county got most of the $9,200 it had requested to train hazardous materials teams to handle incidents such as two that occurred in Westminster on Friday.The grant was announced at the regular meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee on Monday by Chairman George Thomas.

No injuries reported as cable TV workers puncture gas lineA cable television crew inadvertently punctured a gas line yesterday morning while laying cable on a street in Harper's Choice, said Battalion Chief Donald R. Howell, a spokesman for the county's fire and rescue services.There were no reported injuries or explosions during the gas leak, but nearby roads were closed.Children in the area, who were reporting to the first day of school, were escorted safely around the leak.The gas leak occurred at about 7:42 a.m. when the crew's trenching machine struck the natural gas line on Wellinghall Way at Harpers Farm Road, Chief Howell said.

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.

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.

A stretch of road near Route 198 in Maryland City will remain closed until at least today for repairs from a water main break that began Wednesday night and lasted nearly 14 hours. Crews from the county Department of Public Works responded to the break at Red Clay Road that occurred around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The situation was compounded, officials said, when workers struck an unmarked gas line four hours later halting most repairs until Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. workers sealed that line and rerouted gas service to customers in Maryland City and the Russett Community.