Vandalia residents back in their homes after natural gas leak – WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio

VANDALIA — There are questions about what caused a gas leak in Vandalia Sunday that forced nearly a dozed people out of their homes on Waldsmith Way for most of the day.

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News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis says it was not only a long day for some of those residents but also the crews who were there well into Sunday evening.

“It’s typically a very quiet neighborhood,” said Grahm Clawson of Vandalia.

But for people who live in the 800 block of Waldsmith Way, they saw first responders and CenterPoint Energy workers up and down their block.

“It was a little nerve-racking when you show up and there’s just ambulances and fire trucks,” Clawson said. “There’s a lot of elderly people that live in this neighborhood and I was really worried for second.”

He got home just before 2:00 p.m. and learned his home right was right across the street from the gas leak.

“I was kind of worried because I didn’t know if my mom was okay, you know if our dogs were okay,” Clawson told Lewis. “They let me come up and check inside and luckily my mom wasn’t home.”

Chad Follick, Vandalia’s fire chief, told Lewis his department responded to reports of the odor of gas coming from a hole in front of a home on Waldsmith.

They reached out to CenterPoint Energy and the fire department to evacuate nearby homes.

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“There was a significant amount of gas in the front yard,” said Follick. “It had an odor inside. Some of the resident, they were concerned about that. We evacuated approximately six homes, almost 10 people.”

Follick told News Center 7 when they arrived on scene CenterPoint Energy crews were working to turn the gas off so people can return to their homes.

The fire department posted on its Facebook page after 5:30 p.m. that the gas was off and CenterPoint Energy would be on scene for several hours making repairs.

“It was really nice to be able to get that call and be able to come back,” Clawson said.

Lewis says residents were out of their homes for about three hours and the no injuries were reported, according to the fire chief.

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News Center 7 reached out of CenterPoint Energy Sunday night and they said the leak was caused by expansion and contraction of the ground over time.

The leak affected approximately 15 customers were evacuated until the leak was found and shut off to make the area safe at around 5:05 p.m., a spokesperson told News Center 7.

Crews are still making repairs and replacing the old line with a new line.

Service is estimated to remain off for another two to three hours until repairs are finished, according to the spokesperson.

Repairs were slowed due to the storms that rolled that rolled through the Dayton area Sunday evening.

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