Lyell Avenue was shut down from Dewey to Saratoga Avenues on Rochester’s West Side Thursday after a serious gas leak was detected coming from an abandoned convenience store.
Firefighers and police evacuated the nearby Family Dollar Store as they detected gas coming from the basement of the empty building. Once they were able to ventilate and get the gas down to non-explosive levels, they went inside and found the building had been vandalized.
The copper plumbing and gas pipes had been stolen, causing the gas leak. Utility services to the building were shut down.