A gas leak shut down the intersection of Gayley Avenue and
Wilshire Boulevard for about two hours Monday morning.
Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Randy Judd said the leak,
which was reported at about 10:15 a.m., forced the evacuation of
nearby buildings including Hollywood Video, L.A. Fitness and
several buildings housing UCLA facilities.
University contractors digging a trench near Lot 36 ruptured a
gas line, leading to the evacuations, said Nancy Greenstein,
director of university police community services.
Hollywood Video employee Christine Wade said she smelled gas
from inside the store, and left the building after firemen told
employees and patrons to do so.
Wade was standing near the corner of Gayley and Kinross Avenues
at about 11:45 a.m. while two city officials directed traffic
heading south on Gayley Avenue, away from Wilshire Boulevard.
“It’s not affecting (my day) at all,” she
said. “I’m just waiting patiently to go back
in.”
Chad Bell, a fourth-year design student, said he was working on
a project in a Kinross South Building studio when he and his peers
were asked to evacuate at about 10:30 a.m.
By about 11 a.m., several fire engines lined Gayley Avenue
between Kinross Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.
L.A. Fitness chiropractor Steve Salazar said though the
evacuations “affected business quite a bit,” it was not
the first time he and other employees had experienced similar
closures.
Buildings around Wilshire Boulevard have been evacuated several
times in Salazar’s recent memory, including once this past
year when Salazar said city officials told him a suspicious package
was located by a nearby complex.
“We’ve had our share of Wilshire closings,” he
said.
Also on Monday morning, at about 9 a.m., several fire engines
and other emergency vehicles were seen on campus parked outside
Kinsey Hall.
The building was evacuated by the UCLA Fire Department after
smoke was blown in by a malfunctioning rooftop air supply fan, said
assistant fire marshal Steve Jurado.