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Natural gas service almost fully restored

Outage started Monday
Crews from Atmos Energy worked to fix an gas outage in September between East Third and East Fourth avenues. The most recent outage, on Monday, affected 12th Street on the north to First Street on the south, and from East Ninth Avenue on the east to East Second Avenue on the west. Most customers had service restored by Wednesday afternoon.

Natural gas service was restored Wednesday to about 86 percent of the 750 customers cut off by the

Service should be close to fully restored by the end of the day, said Atmos spokesman Darwin Winfield on Wednesday.

Those customers without service were likely not home when technicians came by to relight natural gas appliances, he said.

The outage began when air apparently entered a pipeline during maintenance work.

Crews were replacing a pipe, and the air entered a line that served all the customers hit by the outage, Darwin said.

The line had to be shut down and purged before gas could be put back into it, he said.

The outage included residents and businesses from 12th Street on the north to First Street on the south, and from East Ninth Avenue on the east to East Second Avenue on the west. Among them were guests and staff at the Rochester Hotel. The co-owner of the hotel, Kirk Komick, found out about the outage Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. when his breakfast chef arrived.

“It would have been nice to have a little bit more of a notification,” he said.

Some Rochester Hotel guests showered at the Leland House and the chef was able to use some electric appliances to make breakfast. “Our guests were real understanding,” he said.

The hotel’s gas was restored Tuesday afternoon, but Atmos did not tell him when they would show up so he had to move some guests into the Leland House.

Atmos crews planned to remain in Durango until all services are restored.

“If a resident is not home during this process, we will leave a door tag on the front door with our emergency number to call to schedule a time for restoration,” said Darwin, in a news release.

There must be someone 18 years old or older to allow technicians inside a home to relight natural gas appliances, release said.

If you smell gas inside your home, please leave the area immediately and from a safe distance call 911 and the Atmos Energy emergency line at 1-866- 322-8667.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

Oct 25, 2016
City Council weighs in on gas outage that hits hundreds


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