Fire Department

Firefighters responded to a construction site at the request of MGE after a gas line rupture outside of the building caused natural gas to travel into the vacant apartments nearby. MGE already shut down the gas line and evacuated workers from the surrounding buildings.

Ladder Co. 7 entered the building and detected dangerous levels of natural gas. They, too, evacuated and allowed the building to naturally ventilate for about 30 minutes. When they re-entered the building, levels were below the explosive limit in all areas except those that didn’t have windows, such as bathrooms and closets. Ladder 7 set up a positive pressure ventilation fan and pushed out the remaining gas.

MFD and MGE both surveyed all levels of the building one last time and confirmed it was safe for workers to re-occupy.