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Seminary Street Gas Odor
A local fire department official says the smell of gas emanating from Seminary Street presents no hazards. The Galesburg Fire Department was called to Seminary Street this morning by a maintenance man for the businesses there because he detected an odor of gas. Officials responded and checked several stores on the street including Calico Cat, The Landmark Cafe, and Cornucopia, where the smell, in his opinion, was the strongest. The fire department says the smell provided no hazardous readings on their equipment.

A Galesburg Fire Department Battalion Chief says over his years of experience with the fire department, he has seen calls like this to Seminary Street before. He says historically, all the buildings along the street may get an old gas smell coming from the basement area, on the Seminary Street side of the business. He attributes this to the old gas station on the Southwest corner of Simmons and Seminary Streets. He says tanks had been removed in the past but some gas may have leaked out before the tanks were removed. When the water table gets kind of high because of heavy rainfall, he says the water may pick up some of the leaked gas and send the smell of gas up through the basement area of businesses or up through the sewer.

Fire department officials say they found no reason for concern and were cleared from the scene about a half hour after responding. The businesses along Seminary Street are open for business today.
05 04 09 by Newsroom
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