JAY — Franklin Savings Bank on Main Street remained closed Monday morning after an underground propane line leak was discovered Friday afternoon.

Lt. Mike Luce of the Jay Fire Rescue Department uses a gas detection meter Friday to determine if there is a propane leak underground at the Franklin Savings Bank on Main Street in Jay. Jay Fire Rescue Department photo

Firefighters responded to the smell of propane gas and determined there was a leak in the line underground, Fire Rescue Chief Mike Booker said Monday. The bank was closed and the area evacuated and blocked off, he said.

“We used our gas meters and did get a gas reading coming from a crack in the driveway,” he said. “We shut the propane tanks off and bled out the lines.”

Central Maine Power shut off electrical service.

“We did call the Office of the State Fire Marshal” and notified investigators of the leak, Booker said.

According to a post on the Jay department’s site, it was a slow, long-term leak. The line is expected to be dug up and repaired before the bank reopens.

A representative of the Jay bank was not available for comment Monday.

An underground propane leak, which was punctured in September 2019 at the LEAP Inc. building in Farmington, was a major factor in an explosion that killed Farmington Fire Rescue Capt. Michael Bell and seriously injured six other firefighters and a LEAP employee.


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