Church evacuated after gas odor reported

A church was evacuated after reports of a possible gas leak near the scene of a gas man explosion that killed a utility worker and injured six others a week and a half ago, reports the Associated Press.

Fire department workers called Philadelphia Gas Works at about 9 a.m. Sunday to report an odor of gas at the church in the Tacony section of northeast Philadelphia.

The church was evacuated as a precaution, but people were later allowed back into the building and no other residents were evacuated. A main thoroughfare was also closed to traffic as a precaution but was later reopened.

On Jan. 19, the explosion sent a 50-foot fireball into the sky, prompting dozens of evacuations and destroying nearby buildings and torching several vehicles. Mark Keeley, 19, a PGW employee, was killed in the blast.