Gas Line Ruptures Downtown

Oklahoma Natural Gas crews worked Friday afternoon to repair a natural gas line break in downtown Tulsa. A construction crew using a track hoe broke a 4" high pressure gas line at 2nd and Cincinnati adjacent to One Technology Center, Tulsa's future city hall. Tulsa Fire Department spokesman Larry Bowles says the pipe broke at an elbow joint which is making repairs difficult. The News On 6 has learned that four separate lines fed into that intersection of pipe.

Emergency crews evacuated 50 to 75 people who were inside One Technology Center at the time of the rupture. Bowles told the News On 6 those people were taken to the B.O.K. building, which activated its own emergency operations center. The B.O.K. Tower was not evacuated, but building supervisors shut down external air operating systems.

Every street in a one block radius of the break was closed during the incident. Bowles was unclear how long it would take to repair the break. Work was scheduled for Saturday to install a fiber optics line in the area.