Gladwyne Firefighters were dispatched to a CO Alarm on Mirabeau Lane just before midnight this morning. While responding Chief 24 came upon a PECO primary electric line down in the street on Spring Mill Road at Waterford Court. The wires were arching and the ground was burning.

Ladder 24 was directed to continue to the CO alarm and Engine 24 was redirected to the wires down. Spring Mill Road was closed down by the fire company and Lower Merion Police and PECO electric was called to the scene to assist. Upon arrival of PECO electric they isolated the primary electric lines and it was then discovered that when the lines came down they set an underground fire / causing a leak in the gas main that runs up Spring Mill Road. The Fire was venting out of a storm management pipe that runs under Spring Mill Road. The flames were pushing out both sides of the roadway.

PECO Gas was then dispatched to the scene while Gladwyne Firefighters stood by monitoring the houses and area keeping people back from the scene and checking the interior of the houses with multi gas meters. Engine 23 (Bryn Mawr) was dispatched to assist as there was a possibility that residential evacuations would occur (fortunately this was not necessary).

While on scene a Fire Alarm was received on Meadowbank Road which Engine 23 handled for us while we were operating at the Gas Leak /Fire.

PECO Gas arrived and shut down the gas line causing the fire to extinguish itself once all of the gas cleared the line.
Firefighters were on scene for just under 4 hours clearing the scene at 0400 hours

SAFETY NOTE - We have a lot of downed wires in Gladwyne due to the heavy large tree population. DO NOT EVER Touch or drive over a wire on the ground. We treat ALL wires as LIVE ELECTRIC WIRES until we are advised by PECO that they are not energized.

Thank You to all of our Firefighters for another sleepless night serving our community