Eight Businesses Evacuated Due to Gas Leak

Eight businesses in south Forsyth County were evacuated Tuesday morning while firefighters and repair crews responded to a gas leak on a propane tanker truck.

The incident happened at Macsteel USA located on Grassland Parkway off McFarland Road at 9:45 a.m. Twelve hours later, crews had burned off the fuel, the truck was driven out of the area and no injuries were reported.

Capt. Jason Shivers of the  said a 3,000-gallon propane delivery truck had a malfunctioning valve beneath the vehicle that was leaking gas. Firefighters evaluated and secured the scene while a repair crew from AmeriGas attempted to fix the valving.

"That was unsuccessful," Shivers said. "Also off loading the vehicle to another vehicle was not an option because the damage was catastrophic to the pumping mechanism on the tanker."

The next plan of action was for repair crews to burn off the propane load from the truck with assistance from firefighters. Shivers said their hazardous materials team was also there managing the scene and making sure that all the proper procedures was being followed.

During the operation, repair crews ran a hose line from the tank out to a remote location where the propane was burned off in a safe manner.

The fire department also rotated troops throughout the event and was on their third rotation by the time the gas had been burned off at 9:45 p.m.

Traffic on McFarland Road was not affected, but local traffic was for a short time earlier in the day.