A natural gas line was broken on Tuesday, Feb. 20 when a landscaping crew removed a tree on the southeast corner of the Cass Building.
UT security was dispatched immediately and Tampa Electric Company personnel arrived to shut the main line down. UT Security cordoned the area, closing it off to students so the gas could dissipate.
“We were told to remove the tree,” said Edgar Miranda, a Hardeman Landscaper. “We did not know there was a pipe there.”
There is a yellow marker that is perpendicular to the line that was broken.
Landscapers say that the pipe that is marked is a larger pipe. The pipe that was hit was not clearly marked by TECO. When TECO was contacted, their offices were closed.
“It wasn’t [the landscapers’] fault,” said Dr. Ethan Freid, a Biology professor at the University of Tampa. He works in the lab that was right next to the gas line break.
“The smell was everywhere,” Freid.
Currently, there are no plans to replant anything at that spot.