About 45 employees at the Brainerd Dispatch were evacuated for more than two hours Wednesday after a natural gas leak was reported at 9:09 a.m. in front of the Dispatch building on James Street.
Brainerd Fire Chief Fred Underhill said a Brainerd Public Utilities crew was working near a natural gas main line when PUC employees accidentally drilled into the line, causing the gas leak. Underhill said the gas leak was a more serious leak than a leak at a residential home because the line was larger in size.
CenterPoint Energy, which repaired the gas leak, said the natural gas main line is 3 inches in size and the average residential gas line is typically 5/8 of an inch.
Underhill said firefighters evacuated the Dispatch building as a safety precaution.
CenterPoint Energy employees worked to repair a gas leak in front of the Brainerd Dispatch Wednesday after Brainerd Public Utilities accidentally drilled into a main service feeder line. About 45 employees had to be evacuated for more than two hours. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey » Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch Publisher Terry McCollough said this was the first time that the Dispatch building had to be evacuated for a real emergency.
McCollough said the gas leak wasn't "a terribly serious thing," but it caused an inconvenience for employees and customers. McCollough said the Brainerd fire and police departments and the PUC representatives handled the situation well and had employees back in the building 90 minutes earlier than expected.
The gas leak gave one Isle man a scare. Tim Reichel pulled into the Dispatch parking lot right after the gas leak to purchase a newspaper when a PUC employee motioned him to turn his engine off. Reichel did and rolled down his window and said he knew right away what was going on.
"I could smell the gas right away," said Reichel. "I was there for like a minute or two. They had me put my car in neutral and we backed it into the street.
"I was nervous because anything could have set the gas off ... I went to Perkins for breakfast and told the waitress, 'I almost missed breakfast.'"
The Dispatch reopened for business by noon Wednesday.
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851.
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