Thousands evacuated from schools, homes after gas leak in the Ogontz section of Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Thousands of people were evacuated from schools and homes on Thursday after a gas leak in the Ogontz section of Philadelphia.

Fortunately, no one was injured.

Lamond Elder woke up to what he thought was an explosion.

"It was real loud, sounded like a bomb," he described. "I just heard this loud boom and saw all this yellow gas coming from the street," Elder said.

Philadelphia Gas Works officials said just before 8:30 a.m., a private contractor hit a 20-inch gas main near 18th street and Olney Avenue.

Chopper 6 was overhead as firefighters responded to a ruptured gas line in Northwest Philadelphia.

"It smells like gas, that's what it is, like a gas pipe or a leak or something like that and stuff coming up off the pipes," said Olney resident, Timothy Shank.

As a precaution, La Salle University dorms near the pipe we evacuated and classes were canceled until noon.

The Philadelphia Fire Department evacuated more than 2,300 students and faculty from Central High School. They were sent to Girls High and Widener Memorial.

"My dad got an email from them so he called me like 30 different times. He was just really nervous, like does he have to pick me up," said Mohammed Anas who lives in West Philadelphia and is a student at Central High School.

"We were kind of all just sitting there for a while, we did the wave a few times and we also did an Eagles chant, and we were all just sitting there playing games and then about an hour later we came back to Central," said Elena Maser, a student at Central High School.

Residents at an apartment complex on the 5600 block of Ogontz were also told to evacuate.

"We have our firefighters, our EMTs, our paramedics going house to house in these high rise apartment complexes checking," said Daniel McCarty, a Battalion Chief with the Philadelphia Fire Department

According to PGW, the area is safe and service has been restored to all area customers except residents inside of that apartment building.

"At this point we didn't have to transport anyone, but there were some with low acuity medical needs," said Battalion Chief McCarty.