At 10:20 a.m. on December 13, a gas leakage accident occurred at a construction site of the 3rd Guoyuan Road in Yichang City. But fortunately it was handled effectively, and no casualties have been reported.  （ photo by Wu Yan）At around 9:20 a.m. yesterday morning, an underground natural gas pipeline in the middle of 3rd Guoyuan Road broke due to worker’s misoperation and there erupted a 3-storeyed-high gas pole, which stunned the citizens in the neighborhood and impacted the supply of gas. The fire brigade and traffic office department rushed to the scene immediately, in which temporary traffic control was taken and after rush repair, gas supplies were reassumed in local residence community at about 5 p.m. yesterday.

　　Even far away from the guard line there was a horrible smell of gas when the reporter arrived at the spot at 10:00 a.m. yesterday. Standing in front of an art gallery, the reporter caught sight of a yellow crusher by an earth mound with a huge hollow in the ground nearby, while traffic police and fire fighters were evacuating bystanders. It was told by a local grocer that when he was about to open his grocery at 9:20 a.m. yesterday, he was startled by the huge squeak and when looking around he found a cloud of gas arising from the construction site. In no time, a pillar of natural gas emerged and ejected three storeys high. Wang Zhong, the supervisor of Power Hotel Security, witnessed the accident in the parking lot. When it was happening, he commanded the security staff to put cone-shaped warning signs for car parking around the spot in case citizens approached.

　　According to the firefighters, it was the crushed stones that hit the pipeline and caused the gas leakage when a crusher was breaking the stone. After receiving the call, the fire brigade rushed to the scene and asked the personnel of property management to turn off the valve, but still the gas pole lasted another several minutes because of the enormous gas left in the pipeline. The police officers attached to Yunji Traffic Office Squadron took temporary traffic control around the accident area with no entry for all vehicles after the dispatching order was given. And it was recounted by the staff of Shenyan Pipe Installation Limited Company that a long-time burial for the pipes and reconstruction of roads resulted in the deviation of position between the blueprint and the wanted site, which made it hard to locate the correct leakage source. It was not until 5 p.m. that gas supplies were reassumed.