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Gas line fire in Hopewell Junction leaves thousands without power

The cause of the fire is still unknown. Officials say one person was injured and taken to the hospital.

Julia Rosier

Sep 3, 2024, 6:56 PM

Updated 78 days ago

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A gas line fire left thousands without electricity in Hopewell Junction.
Crews were called to Route 82 at about 1:30 p.m. after flames were seen nearly 200 feet in the air.
The cause of the fire is still unknown. Officials say one person was injured and taken to the hospital.
The outage affected 500 gas customers and over 4,000 Central Hudson customers.
The utility is aiming to have power restored this evening. Natural gas restoration efforts are expected to extend through Wednesday.
East Fishkill Provisions is located next to where the fire started. Employees said they saw the flames.
“It started in the middle of lunch and it was a loud noise and then my manager called and said there were flames coming out of the woods,” Gus Mustakas, an employee at East Fishkill Provisions, said. “It sounded like a jet engine.”
Mustakas said they had to evacuate for hours.
“We were evacuated right away. As soon as the first responders got here, we realized how intense this situation was,” Mustakas said.
Other local businesses told News 12 that they didn’t see the flames, but lost power for hours, which caused them to temporarily close their doors.
“We couldn’t really help any customer. We kind of gave them what would help them because didn’t want to waste a trip,” Nick Zoda, an employee at GNC, said.
The hours long response also required nearby residents to evacuate their homes. News 12 spoke to residents in the area who said they were also evacuated for at least one hour.