Crime & Safety

Updated: Broken Gas Line Wreaks Havoc in Los Gatos

Power at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Highland Terrace has been out since 9 a.m. Monday morning, Jan. 6.

Update: 3:45 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6: A third-party contractor doing a "gas dig-in" at 131 Highland Ave. today hit a Pacific Gas & Electric two-inch line causing a gas leak that affected the entire neighborhood.

PG&E shut off the gas line as a precautionary measure, impacting about 35 customers, said PG&E spokeswoman Monica Tell.

"I don't know what type of work was being done but they struck our gas line while they were working," Tell said, adding that the contractor was not hired by PG&E, but by someone else.

Tell said there's no power outage reported in the neighborhood as of this time, but the utility's power outage map shows one outage affecting 20 customer due to planned maintenance work being performed in the area.

The outage began at about 12:30 p.m. and its estimated restoration time is 4 p.m. 

Los Gatos Monte Sereno police Sgt. spokesman Clinton Tada said the agency didn't respond to this incident as it was under Santa Clara County fire jurisdiction and PG&E.

County fire officials are reporting there was no fire from the incident and no injuries, but said the power is out in the neighborhood. 

The fire department has also cleared the scene. 

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A crew replacing a power pole hit a nearby gas line causing loss of power, gas and road blockages since 9 a.m. this morning near the intersection of Highland Avenue and Highland Terrace in Los Gatos.

Santa Clara County fire crews were on the scene, according to Los Gatos Patch reader Mary P. Curtis, who took photos of the accident.

Calls to PG&E were not immediately returned for comment. Also, a county battalion chief was not able to provide information by the time of this posting. 

Curtis said she believed the the work was being done by a contractor and workers on scene said they didn't know when repairs will be complete and power restored.

It's not known how many people are without electricity as of this time. 

—This is a developing breaking news story. Please check back for updates. 

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