By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Three buildings in Georgetown have been evacuated and evening traffic snarled because of natural gas fumes that were detected after at least two manhole explosions.

The manhole explosions "sounded like a gunshot. Or like a car drove into the building," said David Frandono, assistant manager at J. Paul's Restaurant, which at 3218 M Street NW is right in front of the epicenter of the explosion. "Then we looked at the street and saw manhole covers like 10 or 15 feet in the air."

Right after the 4:40 p.m. blast, Frandono and the 15 or so customers in his restaurant smelled the strong odor of natural gas. D.C. Fire and EMS officials found strong readings of gas up and down the southern side of that block and ordered the evacuation of three buildings, said spokesman Alan Etter.

Though it was still unclear what came first -- the gas leak or the explosion -- Washington Gas workers were able to determine last night that one of their pipes was damaged and began digging into M Street to locate the leak and pinch the pipe closed. They also drilled holes into the asphalt to vent the gas, but no utilities had to be turned off as a result of the blast, said Tim Sargeant, spokesman for Washington Gas.

Officials were still trying to determine what caused the explosion.

Police closed M Street and the Key Bridge right after the blast, leaving commuters to navigate some of Georgetown's narrow, unplowed streets for alternate routes home.

"We still have a couple of streets up here that need work or haven't been plowed yet," said Dan Tangherlini, the city's transportation director. "We needed this like a hole in the head."