East Meadow residents evacuated after natural gas leak

Some East Meadow residents were evacuated from their homes for a few hours Friday night as a precautionary measure after a natural gas leak was reported, Nassau County police said.

Police said the call of the gas leak came over at 9:37 p.m., and officers began evacuating residents at Front Street and Merrick Avenue while National Grid worked to address the leak.

A National Grid spokeswoman said the utility was on the scene at 10:08 p.m. after it received the call reporting a smell of gas, and worked to address the problem until 12:02 a.m. Saturday, when she said the situation was considered safe.

The leak was apparently caused by an equipment failure at Merrick Avenue and Mitchell Avenue, spokeswoman Kathy Hill said, although she did not have an address. No customers were out of service at any point during the leak, Hill said.

A police spokesman did not know how many homes had been evacuated before the gas leak was fixed.