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Champion-Mount Pleasant Road in the Mount Pleasant community was blocked for about 40 minutes Wednesday morning as a result of a natural gas line being cut in half by a track hoe.

Champion Fire Chief Tony Parish said the track hoe was being used to remove a block retainer wall on the east side an old store building when its bucket hit and severed the hard plastic gas line, which went under the wall.

It was a Frontier Natural Gas feeder line to the building, said Parish, adding that it appeared to be a 1-inch line. The property with the retainer wall and old store building belongs to Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.

Parish, a former gas company employee, said he wrapped an old bed sheet from a nearby vehicle around the end of the line releasing gas, secured it with a wooden stake and had this covered in dirt to slow the release of gas.

He said Frontier personnel were working in the area and soon arrived to repair the broken line. It was on the north side of Champion-Mount Pleasant Road, directly opposite the old Champion Fire Station on the south side of the road.

Parish said Champion firefighters blocked two-lane Champion-Mount Pleasant Road in locations - in front of Mount Pleasant Elementary School and near where the road intersects with U.S. 421 West - from shortly after they were dispatched at 9:36 a.m. until about 10:22 a.m.

He said people in the immediate area around the gas leak were evacuated for a similarly brief period as an additional precaution. Parish added that prevailing winds were blowing eastward instead of westward toward Mount Pleasant Elementary several hundred feet away so school operations weren’t impacted.

Natural gas is non-toxic and lighter than air and rapidly dissipates into the air when released.

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A few passing clouds. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.

A few passing clouds. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.

Partly cloudy. High 76F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

A few passing clouds. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.

Partly cloudy skies. Low 53F. Winds light and variable.

Clear skies. Low 52F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.

Clear skies. Low 47F. Winds light and variable.

A mostly clear sky. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.

Partly cloudy skies. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.

Increasing clouds with showers arriving sometime after midnight. Low 46F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.