SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Dozens of people were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after a car crashed into gas equipment, causing a gas leak in the Mira Mesa area.
“I heard a crash that sounds like if you dropped a dumpster on the street,” Michael Estes, a neighbor, said.
The gas leak was reported at 3:18 p.m. on Gold Coast Drive and Black Mountain Road, with SDFD arriving a few minutes later.
“We just hear the hissing of the air flowing and then its gas,” Alexander Robles said.
SDG&E Public Information Officer Anthony Wagner told ABC 10News they are sending their emergency crews to the scene.
“When units first arrived, they found that a black SUV had crashed into a gas meter. It exposed or broke the gas meter line and caused a large diameter gas line to start spewing or blowing out on to the main street,” Battalion Chief Erik Windsor, San Diego Fire-Rescue, said.
One person was injured and taken to the hospital, according to SDFD's Mónica Muñoz.
Some had big concerns with that gas blowing out into the air.
“It’s going to be something’s going to spark or what then it’s going to boom,” Robles said.
“So yes, that’s always a potential. We do everything to mitigate that from happening and take all of the precautions to make sure we don’t lose any life should that happen,” Windsor said.
About 60 people were evacuated on Black Mountain Road and were told to go to Mira Mar College auditorium, room J304. Anyone who lives in the surrounding area was asked to shelter in place.
At 5:50 p.m., SDG&E stopped the leak, according to a tweet by the San Diego Police Department. Northbound on Black Mountain Road reopened to traffic.
One neighbor told ABC 10News he didn’t recognize the car involved in the crash.
But he tells me people who live here tend to be cautious on the road after seeing what can happen on the roadways here.
“Wet streets; cars go fast down this street a lot of times. People are distracted. Sometimes if someone is turns from this corner here on to the street; someone’s coming down Black Mountain and they may not see them. So, I don’t know the details of what exactly happened,” Estes said.
At 6:45 p.m., all evacuations were lifted.
