Gas leak in San Diego prompts evacuation of more than 1,000 homes
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Reporting from San Diego — A ruptured gas pipeline has prompted the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes and shut down a five-mile stretch of freeway in San Diego.
San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Alec Phillipp said a construction worker accidentally drilled into a 20-inch pipeline Wednesday morning near the Fashion Valley Mall in Mission Valley.
Phillipp said homes and business within a half-mile radius of the leak were evacuated. He said about 3,300 people live in that area.
Authorities also have closed State Route 163 between Interstate 8 and Interstate 805.
San Diego Gas & Electric workers were on the scene, but Phillipp said gas was still spewing from the pipe by late afternoon.
He said the evacuation order will be lifted once all of the gas trapped in the pipeline empties.
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