Oak Park firefighters quickly extinguished a small fire at the site of a former Dominick’s grocery store, 259 Lake St., around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, caused by a severed gas line.
Construction workers rehabbing the grocery store to make room for Pete’s Fresh Market were cutting down old sprinkler pipes and accidentally hit an adjacent gas line with a gas-powered saw, causing immediate ignition of the natural gas, Deputy Fire Chief Peter Pilafas said.
Pilafas said the fire caused minor damage to the area of origin and no one was injured.
“The workers on the scene did a phenomenal job shutting off the gas to the building, which actually stopped the flow of fire because they took away the source of the problem,” he said.
He said the tin ceiling of the store prevented major damage.
“So all we were worried about is the membrane underneath the roofing material and just some of the plywood that covers the parapet,” he said.
Pilafas said the fire could have been worse if construction workers had not shut off the gas after the fire started.
