Santa Barbara fire crews responded to a gas leak at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Thursday morning but monitoring equipment has determined there are no gas odors inside the museum itself, Battalion Chief Jim McCoy said.
Crews got the call and responded to the museum at 2559 Puesta del Sol at 10:54 a.m.
It was a small leak in the 1-inch service line leading to the cottage offices in the back of the museum, Capt. Brad Waters said. The gas company showed up in 20-30 minutes and dug up the line, crimped it to stop the leak and repaired it, he said.
The gas pipe was broken by construction crews doing repairs to the museum parking lot area, Waters said.
“What we did was just pull a protection line and sprayed around the area to prevent any static electricity from forming which could cause a spark and ignite,” he said.
There were children at the museum doing class tours during the gas leak but the museum stayed open, McCoy said.
Some of the class tours were evacuated from buildings near the gas line break to other areas of the museum.
Fire crews closed down the parking lot area so no one would walk by before the leak was repaired, in case something ignited, Waters said.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.