SARASOTA – A lunch hour nightmare as the Sarasota County Fire Department worked to mitigate a gas leak in the forty-one hundred block of U.S. 41.
The Northbound lanes of U.S. 41 were closed from Worrington St. to Bee Ridge Rd for about two hours.
Battalion Chief Glenn Snyder says a construction company caused the leak.
“Auger company hit a gas line about ten feet down,” Battalion Chief Glenn Snyder said. “We did have a gas leak when we arrived. Luckily enough, we had street valve where we could turn the street valve off to mitigate the leak.”
A TECO personnel was able to close the street valve.
SCFD evacuated both Trader Joes and Chili’s for safety precautions.
“Just to make sure that the ideal age environment in both of those buildings were safe enough for people, and at that point in time, it wasn’t, so we made the call to evacuate,” Battalion Snyder said.
Some Suncoast residents were disappointed with the temporary closure of Trader Joes.
“I was planning on filling up at Trader Joes, it’s one of my favorite stores,” Sondra Goldenberg said. “I love to shop there, and now I’m disappointed, but I’ll come back later, cause everything they have is great.”
Rest assured, both Trader Joes and Chili’s are up and running again.
But, TECO is still investigating.
“TECO is going to remain on the scene because they do have a damaged line now,” Battalion Snyder said. “And they’re going to have to their investigation, as to what happened, and the cause from there.”
Luckily, no injuries were reported.
