Possible gas leak at Eastgate causes hour-long evacuation
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on June 8, 2016 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Goldsboro Fire Department responded to a call of a gas leak Tuesday around noon at a shopping center on Ash Street. Trade It and Jersey Mike's were both evacuated while firefighters searched for the source of the smell.
A potential gas leak caused the Eastgate Shopping Center at 2503 E. Ash St. to be evacuated for nearly an hour Tuesday morning.
A patron walked into TradeIt! at the shopping center, and then walked over to Jersey Mike's and told the employees inside the sandwich shop that they smelled natural gas inside TradeIt!
An employee at Jersey Mike's called the Goldsboro Fire Department to alert them about the potential leak.
The fire department and Piedmont Natural Gas Company responded to the gas leak to investigate and find the source of the leak, but came up empty handed.
"We couldn't ever find anything, and the natural gas people couldn't find anything on their monitors so we released everything and let them get back to business," said Assistant Fire Chief Frank Sasser.
Sasser said the fire department planned to return in the morning to investigate the potential gas leak because the manager of TradeIt! said the smell of natural gas was strongest upon her arrival around 8:30 a.m. After the business was open for several hours, the smell dissipated.
No one was injured as a result of the gas leak and the building was not damaged. As of press time, it was still not known what caused the natural gas smell.