Laguna Beach residents evacuated after sinkhole leads to gas leak

A gas leak forced some residents in South Laguna Beach to evacuate from their homes Sunday morning.

Laguna Beach fire and police personnel were sent to the area of 10th and Sunset avenues at about 7:30 a.m. after receiving word that a substantial amount of water was rushing between homes and out onto South Coast Highway.

When authorities arrived at the scene, they discovered a Range Rover that had been parked on Sunset Avenue had fallen through a sinkhole and ruptured a gas line beneath the road.

Crews work to pull a Range Rover out of a sinkhole on Sunset Avenue in Laguna Beach on Sunday.

(Courtesy of the city of Laguna Beach)

Several homes located on Sunset Avenue and Virginia Way between 10th Avenue and 11th Avenue were evacuated while crews worked to address the gas leak. Residents were able to return to their homes later in the morning after the gas leak had been dealt with, officials said.

No injuries were reported resulting from the incident.

“We still have geologists in the area investigating,” Sheena Johnson, a spokeswoman for the South Coast Water District, said. “There’s been a lot of rain, a lot of saturation in that area on that hillside. We’re looking at actually what the cause was [of the water main break]. That hasn’t been determined yet.”

A section of Sunset Avenue near 10th Avenue is blocked off after a sinkhole formed on Sunday in South Laguna.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Laguna Beach Public Works, South Coast Water District, and SoCal Gas were among the groups working to clean up the neighborhood and restore gas and water to the impacted area. Approximately 100,000 gallons of water was lost due to the water main break, Johnson said.

Johnson added the vehicle was extracted from the sinkhole by 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

“By that time, our staff and our operations were able to get in there and try to ascertain what was going on. We realized we also needed geologists to come out and take a look at the area to see what happened. … There were seven homes that we had to shut off the water to, and so we restored their water by 2:30 p.m. [Sunday] with a temporary water service.

“Obviously, since that pipe is no longer connected, they don’t have their typical water service, so we had to do workaround to make sure all those homes had water and gas service.”

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