Displaced residents back home after gas leak
Displaced by a natural gas outage Sunday night, many residents and employees of some 280 homes and businesses east of Beloit began returning home and to work this morning to have their natural furnaces relit.
Many of them spent the night at a warming station established by the Red Cross at Aldrich Middle School in Beloit. The overnight low temperature was 19 degrees.
The warming station closed at 6 a.m. today, and Alliant Energy asked residents and employees to stay in their homes and businesses to allow crews to contact them for the re-lighting procedure, which was expected to start at 8 a.m., the Rock County Sheriff’s Department reported.
About 10 p.m. Sunday, Casey K. Johnson, 22, Beloit, was driving a pickup truck east on County S when he lost control and veered off the north side of the roadway, striking an exposed natural gas main, deputies reported.
Alliant crews came to the scene and turned the gas flow off at 10:51 p.m. Alliant representatives then went door-to-door to shut off the gas valve at each affected residence and business. No one was injured in the incident, and Johnson was ticketed for driving too fast for conditions, deputies reported.
Roads around Rock County remain snow- and ice-covered and are hazardous. Many roads have significant drifting, and some may be drifted shut. Unnecessary travel is not advised, the sheriff’s department warned.
Dec 24, 2007 at 6:18 p.m.
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I'm glad that no one was injured, including Casey. Also glad that alcohol was not a factor. Too bad that Casey had to learn a lesson the hard way, about winter driving. I feel for those that were without heat.
I know about no heat in the winter. Many Januarys ago, I noticed that the temperature inside was dropping. I checked the thermostat by turning it up, waited a few minutes but the furnace still didn't come on. I attempted to relight the pilot light, to no avail. I called WP&L and told them that the pilot light would not ignite. I also told them that because of a disability, I was unable to go outside to see whether the gas meter was working or not. Within 45 mins, a service man was there, discovered that the meter was faulty and replaced it. He also relit the pilot light, saving me another trip to the basement.
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