Officials Work To Plug Gas Leak
By Carl Manning, AP Writer

Associated Press
20 January, 2001

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) - Crews toiled in freezing temperatures Saturday to plug a leak in an underground gas storage facility that caused explosions and towering gas geysers in this central Kansas town.

The leak was blamed for blasts that sparked devastating fires this week - one that destroyed two downtown businesses and another that killed one man at a mobile home park and forced hundreds of evacuations.

Early Saturday, Kansas Gas Service officials with special `sniffers'' detected another pocket of underground gas which was moving across the city's southern section, but said it did not pose an immediate threat.