BEATRICE - A natural gas leak prompted Wymore officials to evacuate part of the downtown, last night, also cutting electricity to local customers.
Wymore Fire Chief Mark Meints says the leak occurred at a laundromat that has been closed for several years. He says a local firefighter who was in the downtown area detected the strong odor of the chemical in natural gas, Thursday night at about eight o'clock.


The area was secured, emergency medical personnel and city crews were sent to the scene, shutting off power until the source of the leak was determined. Wymore and Blue Springs Firefighters were called to the scene in the 300 block of South Seventh Street, in the downtown.
A gas company meter determined there was a large amount of natural gas accumulation in an old, closed laundromat...on the south side of the street.
Meints said a Black Hills Energy crew was returning to the location Friday to complete repairs. Emergency personnel were on the scene for about two hours, Thursday night, evacuating some nearby residents.


"The service line at the meter...there was a riser on the meter that they thought had went bad. Due to the fact it was a laundromat, with gas dryers when it was still open...it had a larger line than a normal service building would. It was allowed to have a larger amount of gas than a normal house or a small business would".


Three apartment houses to the south of the building were evacuated. Meints said much of the downtown area was without power for a couple of hours.
"That was due to the fact that they did not want to pull the fuses right there are the poles near the location of the leak, because of the high concentration of natural gas".


No one was injured. In addition to local fire departments, Gage County Sheriff's Officers were on hand to help secure the area while the leak was investigated.
"It's a vacant building and still has an active gas line running to it. Anytime anybody has gas to a building that is vacant, should think about having the gas shut off. If you do smell natural gas in the area, you need to give Black Hills Energy a call, or dial nine-one-one and have the fire department come out. This situation ended up with no one getting hurt, no fire or explosion, but very much could have turned into a bad situation".


Meints says something as small as a motion detector light coming on, could have triggered a damaging explosion in the downtown area. Because of the concern of gas company officials, Meints says the fire department backed their fire truck farther from the scene than its original spot, because of the hazard.
Officials had to force entry into the vacant laundromat, which is boarded up as gas company officials continue to investigate the matter.