Broken gas main in Mayfair causes evacuations

More than two dozen people were evacuated in Mayfair Monday afternoon as PGW workers and firefighters dealt with another gas main leak, officials said.

The leak was declared under control at 5:57 p.m.

The call came in at 4:30 p.m. for a leak in a 20-inch gas main on Cottman Avenue and Leon Street. Authorities began evacuations immediately.

At least a dozen or so people were evacuated from the area, which is comprised mostly of storefront businesses. They were later allowed to return.

PGW Distribution supervisor William Murphy said that workers were fixing a hole in a 20-inch gas main, which they discovered while they were conducting a check.

PGW workers were in the ground working through the bitter cold just a week after they lost one of their own.

A gas main exploded last Tuesday on Torresdale Avenue, near Disston, about a mile away. That explosion claimed the life of 19-year-old PGW worker Mark Keeley, whose body was found under the rubble.

Three other PGW workers and two firefighters were also injured in the explosion.

Murphy said some of the workers are still traumatized by the explosion.

"We have a safety procedure we follow," Murphy said. "We have a job to do and we don't want to dwell and think about it, ...  [but] of course people are a little traumatized."

When Mike Malason, 52, of the Northeast smelled the gas, he instantly had flashbacks of last week's explosion.

"When I came down Leon Street, I could smell a lot of gas and I did tell my compadres ... I said, 'Yo, guys, something is a tad bit askew. Then the fire trucks came up."

Malason said he was attending a town-hall meeting and dining on Cottman Avenue when an officer informed him and his friends that they had to leave the area.

Dave Kuczynski, 33, came to scene nearly an hour after PGW said they had the situation under control.

He was coming to retrieve the van his wife left behind in a panic once she was told to evacuate the area. Kuczynski's wife was attending a dance class on Cottman Avenue and she and her children had to crash at a friends house for a while.

"It's obviously got people scared from the explosion last week," he said.