A Warsaw Vol. fire dept. truck responds to the gas leak Thursday night. Beaman street was closed by police and fire personnel from Blount down to Balsey Street.
Beaman Street was lit up with flashing lights and sounds of emergency response vehicles early Thursday night following a call about a gas leak in the rear of the building at Sampson Regional Medical Center near the boiler room.
Fire departments from all across the county responded, for what could have been an even worse situation — luckily it wasn’t.
A few minutes after 7 p.m. the Clinton Fire Department was dispatched to Sampson Regional Medical Center, along with other fire departments which were requested and quickly responded. Beaman street was closed by police and fire from Blount down to Balsey Street.
According to officials on the scene, an employee had accidentally backed into the gas line when his foot slipped off the break and hit the gas pedal while parking his vehicle, causing the line to rupture .
Firefighters quickly shut off the valve to the gas line, preventing any further damage to property or people in the vicinity.
Clinton Public Safety Director Anthony Davis, said in a prepared statement, “This quick and decisive action mitigated a potentially disastrous outcome. All units cleared after Piedmont Natural Gas arrived and advised that the leak was secure.”
The leak was contained well before 8 p.m., and there were no reported injuries.
“I want to thank all responding units for their responsiveness,” Davis said. “All the public safety officials that responded worked efficiently to mitigate a dangerous situation. We had a great, unified command system set up with Clinton Fire, multiple mutual aid fire departments, Clinton Police, Sampson County Emergency Management, EMS, and hospital staff. They are all to be commended.”