Customers were allowed back into stores in Chicago's South Loop at about noon Monday after construction crews working nearby ruptured a gas line.
The rupture at State Street and Roosevelt Road prompted a Hazardous Materials response and the evacuation of stores, including a Walgreens, just after 11 a.m.
"We sampled the air inside the building surrounding the leak and the lower level of the subway. We found no dangerous levels of gas. It's natural gas. It's lighter than air. Subsequently all the gas was more or less going up into the atmosphere," said the Chicago Fire Department's John McNicholas. "The gas company arrivfed on the scene very quickly. They were able to clamp the leak off."
No injuries have been reported and service to the Chicago Transit Authority's Red, Orange and Gree lines was never impacted.
