UPDATE: Medical Center Gas Main Break Under Control

Fire officials and representatives of Pronger Smith Medical Care, which had to be evacuated late this morning following a gas main break at the La Grange Road facility, said things were returning to normal by noon.

"Within an hour we were done and leaving there," Tinley Park Assistant Fire Chief Mark Bettenhausen said.

The Tinley Park Fire Department got the call of a gas main break at the facility at 17495 La Grange Road at about 10:30 a.m. There was no fire and no explosion, just a pipe leaking gas due to worker error.

"A contractor was doing some excavating on the southeast portion of the property and hit the gas service that went into the building" Bettenhausen said.

Evacuation of 200 to 250 employees and patients had started before firefighters arrived on the scene. Police and firefighters assisted with the evacuation. All those evacuated had returned to the building or gone home by noon.

The pipe was a one-and-one-quarter-inch gas service pipe leading into the building. Due to the location and shallow depth of the line, Nicor was able to clamp off gas to the broken portion within 10 to 15 minutes, Bettenhausen said.

Bettenhausen said it would have been more difficult had it been a larger pipeline.

"The smaller line was easier to let the wind dissipate it," he said.

Firefighters activated the MABAS alert system asking other nearby districts to cover new calls from Tinley Park while they were on-scene at Pronger Smith.