Richard Emery was remodeling inside a home on School Street in Gorham Tuesday morning when he went outside for some tools and smelled an odor similar to rotten eggs.

“Whatever you do, don’t light a cigarette,” a nearby construction worker warned him.

Emery was among many evacuated from homes on School Street and dorms at the University of Southern Maine at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The evacuations came after a highway construction company ruptured a 6-inch natural gas main on School Street, a short distance from the entrance to the university. The Maine Public Utilities Commission is investigating the cause.

Gorham Police Chief Ron Shepard said two university office buildings and two dorms were evacuated as well as a dozen private homes on School Street.

Technicians from Maine Natural Gas, who happened to be at a training session in Lisbon Falls at the time of the rupture, got a police escort to the scene in Gorham so they could shut off the gas.

The rupture occurred as the result of what the manager of engineering operations at Maine Natural Gas called a “miscommunication” between the R.J. Grondin & Sons construction company of Gorham and Maine Natural Gas.

“It appears at this time that where they hit was unmarked,” said Gary Kenny, the manager of engineering operations at Maine Natural Gas. “It’s an unfortunate miscommunication.”

The Maine Public Utilities Commission will be investigating the cause of the rupture over the next couple of months, according to Nicole Clegg, a spokewoman for the commission. Clegg said if the commission determines that one of the companies involved is responsible, that company could face fines.

Clegg did not know how high the fines might be. “This is not a common occurrence,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s anything R.J. Grondin will be cited for,” said Bob Grondin, the vice president of R.J. Grondin & Sons. “The good thing about it was nobody was hurt.”

Grondin said the construction company was excavating to install drainpipes on School Street. Grondin said the company, which has a contract with the state to reconstruct seven miles of Route 114, had properly notified Dig Safe – an organization that notifies utility companies with underground lines of requests to dig – before excavating at that site.

Kenny said there was some confusion involving the excavation request. He said an employee of Maine Natural Gas marked where the gas line crossed the road, which the gas company employee believed was in accordance with the request from R. J. Grondin.

However, at the place the rupture occurred, there was no mark. Kenny said he believed the place where the line ruptured had been marked at one point in time, but said it apparently was not re-marked before the excavation.

Kenny, who described the cooperation Tuesday with R.J. Grondin as excellent, said the plastic gas pipe was buried 3- to 4-feet deep. Utility workers clamped the gas pipe a short distance from the rupture to secure the leak.

The technicians had been escorted to the scene by Gorham Officer David Kearns, who met one technician at the turnpike exit in Westbrook and the other at the Gorham town line. Kearns escorted them with lights flashing and siren blaring.

At the scene Tuesday morning, Deputy Gorham Fire Chief Ken Fickett told Shepard an excavator was digging another hole, allowing gas company workers to “pinch off” the leak. Fickett said the nearest shutoff for the gas line was at Libby Avenue and Main Street in Gorham.

Among the evacuees Tuesday was a 98-year-old woman who got out of her home near the ruptured gas line safely with the help of rescue workers. Senior citizens at an elderly housing complex farther up the hill toward the village were not evacuated.

Shepard said some residents of nearby State Street and the university complained of headaches. He said one construction worker complained of an injury but apparently didn’t need to be transported to a hospital.

Prevailing winds were blowing the gas toward Gorham High School, and several students there complained of not feeling well. But meter readings by Gorham Fire Department didn’t indicate the presence of gas at the high school, which was about a mile away from the ruptured gas line.

Capt. Brian Cousino of the Gorham Fire Department said ventilation systems at the both the high and middle schools were shut down as a precaution. He said natural gas is lighter than air and can rise and dissipate, leaving the “pungent” odor.

Gorham public safety and gas company workers monitored homes and dorms for the presence of gas before residents were allowed to return. Police declared it safe for residents to begin returning to their homes at about 11 a.m.

Lt. Ron Saindan of the university police said about 300 dorm students were evacuated. “We didn’t evacuate any academic buildings,” Saindan said.

Judie O’Malley of Gorham, a university spokeswoman, said buildings evacuated were Robie-Andrews Hall, a dorm with art department offices and studios; Upton-Hastings and Philippi halls, dorms; Gorham Academy, an art department building; and all university-owned houses, including the historic, brick McLellan House, on Route 114. No classes were cancelled, according to O’Malley.

O’Malley said the campus heating system was switched from gas to oil within 15 minutes. But three buildings – printing and welding shops and the child-care center – lost heat.

“The only outage was to the USM campus,” Gary Kenny said about disruption of gas service in Gorham.

University student Thomas Haraden, a junior, was awakened in Philippi Hall when an alarm sounded. Haraden said he wasn’t informed what was happening by the university but learned about the gas leak from other students outside the dorm. He didn’t smell the odor inside the dorm.

“They wouldn’t let us move our cars,” said Haraden, who was walking along School Street toward the village.

School Street resident Lennie Cross was at a gym when the incident happened. “My main concern was for my aunt,” Cross said.

But her aunt, Electa Brown, 98, had been taken by Gorham Rescue personnel to the nearby First Parish Church. “She was exited to ride in an emergency vehicle,” Cross said.

The incident closed Route 114 from Route 25 in Gorham Village to the intersection of Huston Road.

(gas 3) (gas 2)