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A gas leak is a natural occurrence or gas floating into the environment when its container (a pipe) has either been punctured by something sharp or has been broken by a rock crushing it. Most gas pipes lie underground in the dirt so they don’t get broken. Natural gases contain methane which has very flammable properties.
On February 3rd 2026 at 2:15 p.m., a gas leak occurred on 440 Amherst street causing a loud explosion like noise disrupting the surrounding area. Surrounding buildings went into lock down and neighborhoods were on stand by for immediate evacuation. Soon, a fire started up at the Greater Mental Health Building but, luckily, there were no residents in the building when the fire started. The flames spread through the unit quickly and the place was eventually destroyed. Just 24 minutes later, at 2:39 p.m, the entirety of Hillsborough county got an emergency alert about a gas leak and warned that people stay as far away as possible to avoid any dangers.
The Greater Mental Health Building holds patients and helps them with their hearing loss, acts as a rehabilitation center for people who need help controlling their drug use, as well as reaching out to homeless people. They might even help you with your primary care like bandaging yourself up after a cut, and they help Military and Navy Veterans that have been injured during battle. So, after the gas leak and explosion occurred it was known that we had lost all of those very helpful resources that help provide for our community.
Soon, police had blocked off the road between Amherst street, Somerset Parkway, and Thornton Road. They started directing drivers through local neighborhood Villages at Kessler Farms to avoid any traffic build ups.
Surrounding schools such as: Academy for Science and Design, and The Goddard School of Nashua were all sent into emergency lock down as they were only down the street and behind the building that was on fire. No students were allowed to leave, and no parents were allowed to go near the schools to pick up their children. It wasn’t until 6:00 p.m when buses were able to arrive and bring the students home.
After the fire was taken care of (multiple times, as it kept reigniting) three courageous firefighters were rushed to the hospital. The firefighters were injured in a blast caused by the gas leak. Only one firefighter has been released as of now. The other two are staying in the hospital overnight but are luckily not in life threatening conditions. Visit WMUR.com for more information and updates on the situation.
