BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer
EATONTOWN — About 90 minutes after a gas main break cleared customers and employees out of the Monmouth Mall on Tuesday, it was back to business as usual at the sprawling shopping center.
No injuries were reported as a result of the evacuation that resulted when a Dodge minivan involved in a two-vehicle collision struck and severed a gas main at the mall’s southeastern corner intersection right outside Braddock’s Inc., a menswear shop, at approximately 12:50 p.m., according to Sgt. Thomas Clayton of the Eatontown police.
The impact of the collision, which Clayton described as minor, caused the vehicle to jump a nearby curb onto the sidewalk and hit the gas main situated on the corner outside Braddock’s, the police sergeant said.
Borough police and the Eatontown Fire Department were immediately summoned to the scene by Braddock’s employees once gas flowed up through the store’s floor and leaked outside, Clayton explained.
Repair crews from New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) were also called in by authorities to the shopping center at routes 35 and 36, and Wyckoff Road, he added.
The entire mall, including its four anchor stores, was immediately evacuated as the smell of gas spread from Braddocks to neighboring stores and the nearby food court, Clayton said.
Once police and mall security had cleared the building, NJNG crews repaired the broken main, while firefighters measured the levels of gas inside the affected stores and retail spaces, he continued.
After firefighters determined that the gas had dissipated or been completely ventilated and the main repaired, the entire mall was reopened for business at about 2:20 p.m., Clayton said.
All mall patrons and employees followed police directions to leave the building without incident, the police sergeant stated.
“Everyone left cooperatively,” Clayton said.
No summonses were issued in the two-vehicle accident that initially resulted in the gas main break, Clayton said.
At press time, Clayton indicated that he had not yet reviewed the investigating officer’s report.
Seeing hundreds of employees and customers standing outdoors in the shopping center’s parking area was puzzling to mall employee Dianne Kneipp when she arrived for work just before 1 p.m.
“I was told that a van had hit a gas line and that [police] had evacuated the whole mall,” said Kneipp, of Manchester, Ocean County. “I just stayed in my car until they were sure we could go inside.”
Fire departments from West Long Branch and Fort Monmouth assisted borough firefighters at the scene while police units from Tinton Falls, Ocean Township, the New Jersey State Police, and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Department backed up Eatontown police, Clayton said.

