Gas main breaks at construction site

Five local business were evacuated Tuesday and traffic was stopped

after construction workers broke a natural gas main, causing a leak

that took nearly an hour to contain, officials said.

Workers were grading the site in the 200 block of East Olive

Avenue when a bulldozer damaged a two-inch pipe.

Burbank firefighters responded at 3:18 p.m. Tuesday, Fire Captain

Ron Bell said.

Burbank Police officers closed Olive Avenue between Third Street

and San Fernando Boulevard to traffic until about 4:10 p.m., when The

Gas Company workers fixed the pipe, Bell said. Inspectors checked the

evacuated buildings for gas buildup, Bell said.

City Hall, which is near the site, was not evacuated, Bell said.

“Right now, the natural gas is safely in the air and stinks of

rotten eggs,” Bell said at the site.

The construction site is a four-story office building project by

the Cusumano Real Estate Group.

Jackson Bell