LEETONIA, Ohio - Residents began returning to their homes, and utility crews are working to restore service after a natural gas leak prompted evacuations on Wednesday.

Columbia Gas of Ohio began the process of relighting pilot lights late Wednesday night for customers in Leetonia and Washingtonville. The utility company stated that crews are ready to restore service to approximately 250 customers affected by the outage. 

The disruption began Wednesday afternoon when a contractor installing fiber optic lines struck a natural gas line near the intersection of Lisbon and Somer streets. Leetonia Assistant Fire Chief Jason Hephner said the situation required immediate action because gas was filling the area and backing up into the sewer system.

"There was definitely concern of it blowing up," Hephner said. "It was extremely dangerous."

One woman was watching contractors as they worked to install a fiber optic cable when they hit the gas line that was marked where they were digging.

“I was on the porch watching and I heard this noise that sounded like thunder,” she said. “Out of this big hole that they dug it looked like a volcano all this mud and dirt all came up.”

Firefighters evacuated homes within a 500-foot radius as a precaution. Crews from Columbia Gas sealed the leak just before 8 p.m. Before residents could return, firefighters checked 32 homes on Somer Street to ensure inside gas levels were at zero. Residents were allowed back inside around 9:40 p.m. once the area was deemed safe.

Some people on Somer Street got hotels Wednesday night, others came back and spent the night without gas. 

“They just brought our dogs back it's freezing in the house,” one woman who spent the night at home with her family said. 

Columbia gas crews spent all of Thursday at the site digging more holes to get the gas back on for the houses.

“We’ve seen the process and they did pretty much a good job but other than that it's just a mess,” one woman said.  

“I just don't trust them after last night...I keep looking out watching hoping I don't see what I saw yesterday,” a woman said.

Restoring service requires a Columbia Gas representative to enter each home or business to perform a safety check and relight appliances. An adult who is 18 or older must be present to grant access. The utility asked customers who cannot be home to make arrangements with a neighbor or leave contact information on their door.

Most of the homes in the Somer Street area had their gas turned back on by Thursday afternoon. Columbia Gas techs were still going door to door Thursday evening relighting pilot lights. A Columbia Gas spokesperson said techs have at least knocked on every door that experienced an outage from the gas leak meaning those still without gas were not home for the relighting process. Homeowners can request a tech by calling the number on the door tag if they were not home or by calling 1-800-344-4077.

Anyone who smells natural gas should stop what they are doing, leave the area immediately, and call 911 and Columbia Gas from a safe location.