Crews repair gas leak in Spring Hill

SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WSMV) - People were evacuated from their homes Thursday morning after a large gas leak in Spring Hill.

Police said the leak was caused by workers digging at the construction site of a new school along Wilkes Lane. The gas could be smelled throughout multiple neighborhoods in the area.

The road had to be shut down around to keep cars a safe distance from the leak. Police said they also briefly evacuated people in the immediate area.

“It’s just the safety of the people around,” Lt. Justin Whitwell said. “We have nothing to do with the gas line. We just want to evacuate the area, make sure everybody is safe, close the roads, so no traffic is coming through. If something did ignite, we could have some real bad issues.”

The gas company shut off the broken line within about 30 minutes of getting on the scene. However, repairs still needed to be made to that extensive gas line, so the area continued to be blocked off.

Lt. Whitwell said this is the second gas leak they’ve had to deal with over the past week. As a result, Spring Hill officials are reminding people to check for dangers like a gas line before digging.

“I don’t attribute it to growth,” Whitwell said. “It happens everywhere. It’s just one of those accidental things; it could be negligence; you just have to be leery of how you dig in the area.”

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