Hartford

Gas leak prompted evacuations at daycare, apartments in Hartford

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Several apartment buildings and a daycare were evacuated after a gas leak at an unoccupied building in Hartford on Tuesday morning.

It happened on Laurel Street between Farmington Avenue and Hawthorn Street and CNG, Connecticut Natural Gas, responded.

The utility company could not get inside the building, so they cut the gas line in the street and are making repairs.

Laurel Street is expected to be closed for much of the day.

Gas levels in the building were high.

“The hazard is, if there's a fire or explosion in that building, an explosion can obviously impact safety in the immediate surrounding area. So, we did not have any elevated readings in any of the other structures. It was just the structure where the gas leak occurred -- 217, the remaining structures are evacuated as a precaution,” Deputy Chief Adam Guertin, of the Hartford Fire Department, said,

Around 50 people were evacuated from five buildings as a precaution and no injuries have been reported.

The director of the New Beginnings Early Learning Center said they were told to evacuate.

The staff walked around 25 children down Laurel Street and around the corner to Hawthorn Street to get away from the leak.

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