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Gas leak forces evacuation in West Bountiful neighborhood

Posted at 5:58 PM, Sep 25, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-25 19:59:15-04

WEST BOUNTIFUL, Utah - Crews worked for hours to get gas back to homes in West Bountiful at 2310 north and 880 west. Monday night, after a leak forced residents from more than a dozen houses to be evacuated.

“It was like a loud boom,” said Cheri Dautel, who was evacuated from her home just after five o'clock Monday.

“We could hear a loud whooshing noise like running water, and I wondered what was going on outside.  It sounded like a cement truck pouring, but there was no cement truck out there,” said Mark Stanger, a resident who was evacuated.

One woman, Cheri Dautel, runs a daycare out of her home, and was taking care of 10 kids when she was evacuated.

“Within minutes we had fire fighters and construction workers knocking on the door, and shutting off all our gas and helping evacuate the kids in my car,” Dautel said.

Dominion energy confirmed that a contractor hit a two-inch residential gas line with a backhoe.

“As a result of that and the amount of gas coming out of that line, we evacuated several homes, 13 to be exact,” said Chief Jeff Bassett of South Davis Metro Fire.

Crews cleared out homes, and families couldn't go back in for almost two hours. Some of those that were evacuated say this adds insult to injury.

“It does aggravate just our feelings on the whole situation,” Stanger said.

Crews have been working on replacing a 90-year-old gas pipeline here since July. The company claims it would cost too much to put the pipeline in the street so instead they're going through backyards, tearing through grass, and knocking down fences and trees. Homeowners say dominion energy is bullying them, and refuses to pay for the damages done.

Dominion Energy was not available to speak on camera, but says their legal team is working with individual homeowners.