VENTNOR – A gas leak on the west side of town led to the evacuation of 35 people for approximately two hours Friday afternoon.

A high-pressure gas pipe was struck by a contractor for the South Jersey Gas Company while performing roadwork on Fulton Avenue, according to Ventnor City Fire Chief John Hazlett.

Three fire engines, two ambulances and a rescue vehicle responded at 12:10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10 to evacuate people around the leak at 6707 Fulton Avenue.

“I would say by the time we got within two blocks you could hear the gas jetting out of there,” Deputy Chief Tom O’Brien said. “It was roaring like a jet engine.”

Firefighters set up a perimeter between Kingsley and Berkshire drives to Buffalo Avenue, including Fulton Avenue.

Firefighters went door-to-door and evacuated 35 people to the auditorium of the Ventnor Educational Community Complex until the gas company could find the controls and shut off the gas, O’Brien said.

“The gas was fed from two different directions,” Obrien said. “They went to shut off one but they had to shut it off on two ends of the street.”

At 2:15 p.m. the gas company had clear readings in the air and residents were returned safely to their homes.

“We worked well with the gas company,” O’Brien said. “It was a good coordinated effort between the two departments.”

He said the police department was called in to enforce the perimeter set up around the gas leak.

Mayor Theresa Kelly, Commissioner Mike Advena and City Administrator Sandra Biagi went to educational complex when the leak was fixed.

“I have to have kudos to our fire department and police officers,” Kelly said. “They did a great job.”

She said a volunteer in the mayor’s office, Janice Leach, came into city hall early because she was evacuated.

“There’s so much work getting done and doing the kind of work we’re doing this can happen,” Kelly said. “Particularly when you open a street and the map tells you a pipe is in this position and it isn’t; it’s easy for this sort of thing to happen.”

The name of the contractor working for the gas company was not immediately available.

This is the second gas leak in eight months that led to the evacuation of Ventnor residents.

Fifteen homes in the unit block North Fredericksburg Avenue on the Ventnor-Margate border were evacuated for 90 minutes on May 26 during road construction by a contractor for South Jersey Gas Company.