ATLANTA — After a massive gas line erupted along Sylvan Road in Southwest Atlanta on Wednesday.
Crews are now trying to make repairs after flames burst through the pavement and baked the asphalt for at least an hour.
A piece of construction equipment sparked the whole thing around 10:30 a.m.
Nearby businesses, including a daycare, were evacuated.
Crews initially thought the repairs would take only 12 hours to repair, but now they think it will take longer.
They told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan on WSB Tonight at 11 p.m. that repairs would happen through the night and into tomorrow morning.
[PHOTOS: Broken gas line catches on fire, sets roadway, cars on fire in Southwest Atlanta]
McCowan spoke with a local business owner on the impacts of the incident.
When Corey Burke with Mama Jane’s Seafood heard a loud noise and then saw these flames, he knew to stay back.
“It was pretty high, it was almost as high as the bridge,” said Burke.
He said customers were not able to get to the business.
“Gas was off, customers weren’t able to get to us. Usually on Wednesday, I do between 40-60 customers. We did maybe about eight,” said Burke.
Earlier Wednesday, McCowan spoke with a driver who came across the intense flames.
When Snehith Guntaka saw these flames on his way to work Wednesday, he thought it was just a car fire...until he stopped at the intersection.
“When I got close, I had my windows and everything rolled up, but you could still feel the heat like instantly. It just came in through the door and through the window, so I just tried to get out of there rather quickly,” Guntaka said.
The intense heat continued for more than an hour, leaving behind a mess for crews.
“The flames were pretty extensive because of a boring rig and a tractor that was in the area,” said Holly Lovett from Atlanta Gas Light.
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Atlanta Gas Light will need to go in and repair the 4-inch plastic main that broke, but first crews had to wait for the area to cool, then pump the water from the fire department.
“Our crews are going to work as quickly as possible to get that line repaired,” Lovett said.
Crews told McCowan that they trying to work fast but safely. They’ve shut down roads for several blocks around the area.
For people who take that way to get to work in the mornings, there’s a chance Sylvan Road might still be blocked off into the morning commute.
The work on the gas line is expected to last into the morning hours. Then the road will need to be repaired before it can reopen.
Investigators are trying to get to the bottom of what went wrong.
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