A natural gas leak erupted into flames on an Ogden street Saturday, burning for three hours and forcing the evacuation of several homes before finally being contained.
There were no injuries, but a $90,000 backhoe was destroyed, a power pole burned and plastic siding on an adjacent house partially melted.Ogden Fire battalion chief Steve Splinter said a construction crew was digging a trench to lay fiber optic cable at 450 W. 17th St. when the backhoe struck and ruptured a natural gas line just before noon.
The driver and a few other members of the crew, who were doing supplemental hand-shoveling, quickly retreated.
Within a minute, the ruptured line burst into flames from an unknown ignition source.
"(The driver) was a lucky guy that he got out of there when he did," Splinter said.