Gas Leak Repaired on Toilsome

The Suffolk County Water Authority hit an abandoned gas line, causing a gas leak while working on Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village on Thursday morning.

East Hampton Fire Department Chief Richard Osterberg Jr. said the water authority workers were digging a hole to connect service for a house at 75 Toilsome Lane being built when they "sheered off" a one-inch gas line. The fire department was called at about 10:50 a.m. 

Firefighters responded with an engine, pumper truck, and the heavy rescue truck, which has specialized equipment, like gas clamps, to help remedy gas leaks. While Chief Osterberg was on his way to the call, he came upon a National Grid crew working on an ongoing problem on Dunemere Lane, and asked them to respond to the gas leak on Toilsome Lane. 

National Grid repaired the leak within a half-hour, during which time the fire department stoodby. 

Toilsome Lane between Wireless Road and Montauk Highway had already been shut down while the water authority was working, so traffic was not further disrupted when the gas leak occurred. 

At about the same time as the gas leak was reported, the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association was called to Railroad Avenue in the village for a separate incident in which a worker amputated his finger. That patient was medevaced to Stony Brook University Hospital. No further information was immediately available on how the injury occurred.