August 26, 1994

Six houses evacuated after gas line ruptures

Six houses on Mount Lucas Road in Princeton Township were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after workmen ruptured a gas line, police said.

There were no injuries, township police Lt. Mario Musso said.

Detour signs were erected and people were forbidden to venture within a few hundred feet in either direction of the leak, he said.

The residents who were evacuated were allowed to return to their homes at 4:15 p.m., less than two hours after the rupture was discovered at 2:45 p.m., he said.

The rupture was caused by employees of J. Fletcher Cramer and Sons Construction Co. of Hackensack. he said. A crew was digging a 42-inch trench on Mount Lucas Road between the intersection of Red Hill and Ewing Street preparing for installation of a water main by Elizabethtown Water Co., Lt. Musso said.

They struck a 2-inch plastic gas service pipe belonging to Public Service Electric & Gas Co., sending natural gas into the atmosphere. he said.

“You could smell it,” he said.

The Princeton Fire Department, the Princeton First Aid Squad and a PSE&G crew arrived at 3:05 p.m, Lt. Musso said.

At 4:10 p.m., the PSE&G crew shut off the gas and capped the pipe, he said.

Initially, five customers were left without gas for 10 minutes while the gas main was shut off, PSE&G spokeswoman Priscilla Silber Brown said Thursday. But after the repair crew dug further, it discovered that the break was in a gas line to a single house. That customer’s service was restored by 4:30 p.m.. she said.

— Laurie Lynn Strasser