Gas leak in Gaithersburg under control

Firefighters who responded to a natural gas leak at a maintenance depot in the Gaithersburg-Rockville area found it to be quickly under control, said Assistant Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Graham, a department spokesman.

No one is sure if the earthquake that rumbled through the region Friday caused the coupling in the outdoor gas line to leak, Graham said. The area of the leak was where a wide section of pipe gets more narrow, and there is natural pressure there, Graham said.

Graham said that after the earthquake, county workers inspected a number of facilities, as a precaution. They found the leaking coupling that hadn't been leaking the day before. There was "no obvious evidence" the quake caused it, Graham said.

He described the earthquake overall as not a big deal, rescue-wise.

"There's not a single tree branch down," he said. "This was a non-event, thank God."

--Dan Morse