Natural gas controlled at apartment complex

By Associated Press

Residents of about a dozen Forrest City apartment units were allowed back into their homes after natural gas was shut off to a line that was leaking.

A natural gas line vented to the atmosphere Thursday night after a pickup left a nearby street and struck an above ground fixture of the line, an emergency official said.

Some residents of a nearby apartment complex were relocated at the time, according to Renee Pressler, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

Pressler said the line was broken when the truck hit it, but the venting gas didn't catch fire.

As a precaution, she said, 15 people living in 12 units of the nearby Grove Myer apartment complex were asked to leave their homes, but were able to find accommodation at other apartments in the same complex.

She said ADEM officials and local emergency-management workers secured the scene. Centerpoint Energy shut the gas off Thursday night until the line could be repaired.