Fort Worth, Texas: Gas Leak on Basswood Boulevard Forces Evacuations After Crew Hits Line Near I-35W

A construction crew hit a gas line in Fort Worth on Wednesday afternoon, opening a leak that forced nearby businesses to evacuate and sent gas and mud spewing from a hole in the street.

The Fort Worth Fire Department confirmed that a construction crew struck the line in the 2700 block of Basswood Boulevard, near Interstate 35W. Images from SKY 4, the helicopter of FOX 4 News, showed first responders gathered around the digging site while gas and mud rose out of the hole the crews had opened.

Daycare children and staff exposed

Fort Worth Councilman Charlie Lauersdorf said several children and staff members at a daycare near the leak were exposed to the gas. The fire department said none of them was taken to a hospital.

That detail set this leak apart from a routine utility strike. The people closest to the escaping gas were young children and the adults who care for them, and the first question for families in the area on Wednesday was whether anyone had been hurt. On the reports published Wednesday afternoon, the answer from the fire department was that no one at the daycare needed hospital transport.

Evacuations and traffic

Several nearby businesses were evacuated as a precaution while crews worked at the site. CBS News Texas, reporting the same address and the same fire department account, said the businesses evacuated were north of the leak. WFAA listed the incident in its Wednesday headlines as a gas leak that caused a road closure and business evacuations in Fort Worth.

Traffic in the area was affected while responders held the scene. Drivers who use Basswood Boulevard near the interstate faced a closed work zone with fire crews, utility workers and digging equipment in the street, and no reopening time had been announced in the reports published on Wednesday.

What is still unknown

Crews were still working to cap the line when FOX 4 published its report on Wednesday afternoon. The station said it was not yet clear how long the capping work would take or when the area would reopen.

The reports did not name the construction company that struck the line, did not say how deep the line sat or what size it was, and did not give a count of the businesses evacuated. Those answers sit with the fire department and the utility crews at the scene, and they matter for the businesses that lost an afternoon and for the daycare families who will want to know how close the leak came to the children.

For now, the confirmed picture is narrow and specific. A crew digging in the 2700 block of Basswood Boulevard hit a gas line on Wednesday afternoon. The fire department responded, businesses nearby emptied out as a precaution, children and staff at a nearby daycare were exposed to gas but none was taken to a hospital, and crews stayed at the hole in the street working to cap the line, with traffic in the area affected and no reopening time announced.