The Denver Fire Department evacuated some buildings on Lawrence Street after a construction crew hit a high-pressure gas line Tuesday morning.
The accident happened at 10:11 a.m. at 1401 Lawrence St., said fire department spokesman Mark Watson.
Watson didn’t know how many people were evacuated. He said some buildings have turned off heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to prevent the gas from getting in. No one was injured.
Xcel Energy is on the scene and is digging a secondary hole to fix the break. Xcel said at about 2:15 p.m. that the repairs won’t be completed until Tuesday evening.
“The leak is about three feet deep,” Watson said. “It will take some time to dig down that far.”
Andrew Rotz, the building manager for the University of Colorado Denver Business School at 1475 Lawrence St., said the fire department evacuated the entire building around 10:30 a.m.
“We were working on grading and other business school things,” he said an hour and a half after the evacuation. “Now, we’re just waiting for them to get to the valve and turn it off.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or
