Soda Springs residents back home after evacuating due to gas leak
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SODA SPRINGS — An Idaho Transportation Department road crew punctured a high pressure natural gas line in Soda Springs Thursday.
Local authorities evacuated residents from the area and diverted traffic to avoid any possibility of sparking the natural gas. Nobody was hurt from the gas leak, including the road crew.
“Anytime something like this happens, we review it internally to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Justin Smith, Spokesperson for ITD. “Our safety folks are looking at it. We do apologize to the people of Soda Springs.”
On the 700 block of North Hooper Road, the ITD crew were replacing a speed limit sign. To do so, they had to drill into the ground to replace the post. While doing this, they clipped a gas line, causing the leak.
The crew alerted authorities as well as Intermountain Gas Company and evacuated the area quickly after turning off their equipment.
Dispatch received a call alerting them to the situation at 12:23 p.m. That’s when law enforcement from the Caribou County Sheriff’s Office and the Soda Springs Police Department began evacuating people from the area.
About 30 minutes later, law enforcement had ID Highway 34 closed. Drivers were diverted to Government Dam Road west of the highway to Meadow Road several miles north of Soda Springs.
Caribou County Sheriff Adam Mabey explained that high pressure natural gas lines “put out an awful lot of natural gas, so any sparks could potentially cause a bad fire incident.
“Luckily, we didn’t have any issue like that,” said Mabey.
The road reopened and people returned to their homes around 8:15 p.m.