Lauderhill Gas Leak Burned Off, Residents Back In Homes
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Some residents and staff of an assisted living community in Lauderhill were evacuated Tuesday due to a gas leak.
Lauderhill police and firefighters were called to "The Lenox on the Lake" community, at 6700 W Commercial Boulevard, around 10:30 a.m. after workers cut a gas line.
Police said the line that was cut went to underground propane storage tank that holds up to 900 gallons of fuel. A hazardous materials team was called in to stop the leak.
"Right now what we're trying to do is offload the remaining gases in that tank among one gas to another, we have a gas company on scene trying to offload that gas," said Lt. Jerry Gonzalez with Lauderhill Fire Rescue. "If that is unsuccessful we're going to have to do what we call a burn off, where we burn the remaining gases in the tank."
Sixty-three residents and 40 staff members were evacuated to a safe distance.
"The building is separated in two; we have a west side and east side. All the west side residents, where the gas line was, were moved over to the east side structure," said Lt. Gonzalez.
Nobody is hurt and every one is accounted for at this time, according to Lauderhill Fire Rescue.
In the end, the gas couldn't be transferred and had to be burned off. Once that process was complete, all the residents were allowed to return to their homes.
