Gas leak forces evacuation of large Dallas apartment building

A natural gas leak on Friday forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from a Dallas apartment building, officials said.

It all began just before 7:30 p.m. when Dallas-Fire Rescue was dispatched to a call at the Alexan Riveredge Apartments located on Turtle Creek Boulevard near the Trinity River.

Atmos Energy reportedly was performing a routine inspection after a small fire earlier in the day at the five-story building, said Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans.

"Though no readings were found inside, all tenants were evacuated from the 325 unit apartment building, which is 90 percent occupied," Evans said.

Power to the building was shut off and the City of Dallas Department of Emergency Management and Crisis Response was brought in to assist with crowd control, Evans said.  DART provided buses to give residents a cool place to sit while crews worked to fix the problem, he said.

Evans said DFR responded to a fire around 3 p.m. Friday in the kitchen of a fourth-floor apartment.

"(It) was quickly extinguished by firefighters and the building's sprinkler system," he said.  "There were no injuries reported during that fire, and that fire is not believed to have anything to do with the gas leak found afterwards."

CBS News Texas has asked Atmos for a statement, but has not heard back.  

There was no word Friday night when residents might be able to get back inside their homes.