An accidental pipe puncture led to the shutdown of a section of 7th street this morning according to Missoula Rural Fire Department Cpt. Damon Almond.

"We got called about 9:30 to a possible gas leak, a blown gas line on 7th and Preston. Upon arrival there was  a leak it was underground so it took a while for us to locate an area where we could shut it off. We were just concerned with folks around the area. We didn't have any entrance to any homes in the area, but we were able to shut the road down."

Apparently, the gas line was ruptured by a piece of equipment similar to a ditch witch.

"We actually did do a dig in the street. We typically don't have to go that far, at this point we really didn't know where the leak was, they were doing underground pipes and they perforated the gas pipe with a piercing nozzle from a piece of machinery, that was the hard part... trying to gain access to where the leak was and where the gas was leaking to."

The broken gas line was detected because of the smell of an aroma additive to the gas. Fire fighters were preparing to leave the area around noon.

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