Gas leak at Ferndale bank leads to brief closure of Main Street

A natural gas leak at the Wells Fargo Bank on Main Street led to the evacuation of the building and a brief closure of the street Monday afternoon, May 2.

A driver in a red sedan accidentally backed into the rack of natural gas meters behind the building while going through the bank’s drive-through at about 2 p.m., said Ferndale spokesman Riley Sweeney. Natural gas began leaking from the meters.

The driver suffered minor injuries, but no one else was was hurt, Sweeney said.

Emergency officials arrived within minutes to evacuate the building and were able to turn off the gas, Sweeney said. The bank sits at the center of a retail complex at the city’s entrance, adjacent to a strip mall, Haggen and a Dollar Tree store.

By 2:30, personnel from Cascade Natural Gas were working to fix the meters.

Before turning off the gas, officials closed Main Street from its intersection with Labounty Drive to Walgreens just west of the bank. The closure lasted about 20 minutes, Sweeney said.

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Gas leak at Ferndale bank leads to brief closure of Main Street."