About 125 Hennessey residents were evacuated Monday, July 29th due to a major gas leak at the northwest corner of E. Iowa St and N. Mitchell Rd. The initial 911 response came in at 4:58 pm when Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman received a call from the Hennessey Aquatic Center manager Larissa Macy. Tillman said, “Larissa said there was a very strong gas odor at the pool burning everyone’s eyes.” Tillman instructed her to evacuate everyone right away and called 911.
When Hennessey Firefighters arrived, they found that Gradeworks, the contractor working on the water main project in front of the school, had struck a 4-inch gas line with their excavator. Following procedures, Hennessey Firefighters, along with Hennessey Police and Kingfisher County Emergency Management, started evacuation, going door-to-door to all of the homes and softball fields north of Iowa and both sides of Meramac St to Hwy 51.
Several residents refused to leave, stating it was not a big deal. The Hennessey Town Hall was open as a cooling shelter for residents who didn’t have anywhere to go.
ONG representatives were on-site at about 5:15 pm and called for backup from OKC. It took about an hour and ONG came out in force taking it very seriously with 7 trucks and about 20 crew members taking gas measurements and surveying the situation. They located the line about 200 feet north of the damage and dug a hole to expose the 4-inch “Polyline,” and installed a clamp to cut off the gas flow at about 8:15 pm. At this point, it was safe for residents to return to their homes.
ONG then started making repairs to the damaged line that serviced all of the school properties along Mitchell Rd.
Crews working the emergency included: Hennessey Fire, Hennessey Police, Kingfisher County Emergency Management, The Hennessey Utilities Department, and Oklahoma Natural Gas.
