UPDATE, 11:46 a.m.: McKenna checks in: PG&E’s Bill Basham says it was a one inch service line, but that it’s been clamped and they’re preparing to repair it. He says a contractor was working on a sewer line and that the gas main may not have been properly marked.

Photo above courtesy Mark McKenna. Photos below courtesy Will Startare. -AG

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UPDATE, 11:36 a.m.: Mark McKenna tells us that the gas line appears to have been clamped.

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UPDATE, 11:31 a.m.: Friend of the LoCO Will Startare, also on-scene, says that Fifth Street has been shut down entirely and there are perhaps 10 fire trucks are on the scene.

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Lost Coast Outpost contributor Mark McKenna is at the Christie Motel, where a ruptured gas main is causing some chaos. People are being evacuated from the scene and traffic on Fifth Street has been disrupted.

McKenna says that the rupture appears to be the result of an industrial accident. “The guy working the bobcat that cut the line totally bailed,” he writes.

Photos and more soon.