CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) -
The midday demolition of an old building came to a grinding halt after work crews cut a natural gas line.
"I guess some of the building that we were pulling this way accidentally fell toward a gas main," said Adam Hobbs, production manager for Eagle Machines. "We assumed it was shut off, of course. We wouldn't be around it if it wasn't. And next thing you know, we hear a big alarm whistle come on, and we had everybody shut off everything and we got out of there."
It happened on the 4600 block of Baldwin next to the Eagle Machine building. Emergency crews quickly closed off the busy industrial street between Agnes and Leopard, and even ordered some folks in the nearby buildings to take shelter.
Fire investigators said it was part of keeping people in the area safe from a potentially dangerous situation.
"It could have been a dangerous situation," said Captain James Brown of the Corpus Christi Fire Department. "I mean, anytime you have gas into the atmosphere there is a danger, but conditions we had, wind blowing, so that helped out. And again, we were able to get to it quickly and stop the leak."
City work crews repaired the broken pipe in a matter of hours, and the demolition of the building continued without any problems.
