Cape Coral gas leak: SE 47th Street buildings evacuated

Buildings along two blocks in southeast Cape Coral were asked to leave on Monday morning after an excavator struck a natural gas line behind a seafood business, and the police department is telling anyone still in the area to keep heat and open flame away from it

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 10, 2026

Photo: Erik Mclean / Pexels

What it changes

If you are on Southeast 47th Street or Southeast 47th Terrace in southeast Cape Coral this morning, this is the one to act on. The Cape Coral Police Department reported a gas leak in the 1300 block of Southeast 47th Street and asked buildings on the south side of the 1200 to 1300 block of Southeast 47th Street and the north side of the 1200 to 1300 block of Southeast 47th Terrace to evacuate as a precaution. Police also asked everyone else to stay away from the area, and told anyone who is in it not to use heat or an open flame. Take that last instruction literally rather than loosely. It covers the obvious things, a lighter, a match, a cigarette, a grill, and it also covers the ones people forget, a gas cooker, a pilot light, a garden strimmer or a generator, and switching things on and off at all, because a spark is a spark whatever produced it. If you can smell gas, the standing advice from every fire service is the same and it does not change for this street: do not go looking for the leak, do not operate anything electrical, get yourself out and away from the building, and then call 911 and the gas utility from somewhere else. The cause is not a mystery and it is not a system fault. The Cape Coral Fire Department says an excavator struck a natural gas line behind Merrick Seafood on Southeast 47th Terrace, and that firefighters and TECO have both responded to bring the hazard under control. Nobody has named a contractor, an operator or a driver, nobody has assigned fault, and nothing here does either. The business is in the account only because the fire department uses it as the marker for where the line runs. Be clear about what is not known, because a gas leak is the kind of story people fill in for themselves. No source has said whether anyone was hurt, whether any building was damaged, whether gas got into any structure, whether any road is shut or whether power or water is affected. Nobody has published an all clear either, which is why this item carries the breaking flag: as far as anything published shows, the evacuation request is still in force. If you have been asked to leave, do not read the fact that this is a precaution as a reason to go back before the fire department says so. Two newsrooms have this and both are quoting the same police department release, so treat it as one agency speaking twice rather than as two independent confirmations. Gulf Coast News, updated at 11.15 on Monday morning, carries the fire department account and the TECO response. WINK News carries the police department account and had a reporter on the way for more. The city itself has posted nothing on its own site, and neither department publishes to a page this desk can read, so anything further will land through those newsrooms or through the departments' social channels before it lands anywhere official. One thing worth carrying away after this particular morning is finished with, for anybody about to break ground on a property anywhere in Lee or Collier. Striking a buried line is the most common way a gas emergency starts in a residential city, and Florida gives you a free way to avoid it: dial 811, the Sunshine 811 notification service, before a shovel or a machine goes into the ground, and the utilities come out and mark what is buried. It costs nothing, it is a legal requirement in the state for most excavation, and it is the difference between a job and two blocks being asked to leave their buildings on a Monday morning.

Two blocks in southeast Cape Coral were asked to evacuate on Monday morning after a gas line was struck, and the request was still in force when this item was written.

The Cape Coral Police Department reported a leak in the 1300 block of Southeast 47th Street. According to the department, buildings on the south side of the 1200 to 1300 block of Southeast 47th Street and on the north side of the 1200 to 1300 block of Southeast 47th Terrace are being asked to leave the area as a precaution, and residents elsewhere are asked to avoid it.

Anyone who is in the area, the department says, should not use heat or an open flame.

The Cape Coral Fire Department says an excavator struck a natural gas line behind Merrick Seafood on Southeast 47th Terrace, causing the leak, and that firefighters and TECO have both responded to mitigate the hazard.

That account comes from Gulf Coast News, in a story credited to assignment editor Layza Pinero Resto and stamped 11.15 on Monday morning. WINK News carries the same police department account, including the identical block boundaries, and reported that one of its reporters was on the way for further detail. Both newsrooms are working from what the police department has put out, so the two accounts are one agency statement relayed twice rather than two independent confirmations of it.

Neither department has published anything in its own words that could be read on this run. The City of Cape Coral home page carries no notice on the incident, and both departments issue this kind of update through social channels rather than through a page.

Much about the incident is not established. No source has stated whether anyone was hurt, whether any building was damaged, whether gas entered any structure, whether any road has been closed, or whether power or water service has been affected. None of those is asserted here in either direction.

No all clear has been published, and no statement has been issued that the line has been capped or that the evacuation request has been lifted.

No contractor, operator, driver or property owner has been named by either newsroom, and nothing here assigns responsibility for the strike to any party. The business named in the fire department account appears only as the geographic marker for where the line runs.

The standing advice from fire services for anyone who smells gas is unchanged by any of this. Do not search for the source, do not operate electrical switches or anything that could produce a spark, leave the building and get well clear of it, and call 911 and the gas utility from another location.

Anyone planning excavation on a property in Southwest Florida can have buried lines marked at no cost by dialling 811, the Sunshine 811 notification service, before work begins.

Where we read it: Layza Pinero Resto at Gulf Coast News. Read their story.

The document: No public filing has been released.

Buildings along two blocks in southeast Cape Coral were asked to leave on Monday morning after an excavator struck a natural gas line behind a seafood business, and the police department is telling anyone still in the area to keep heat and open flame away from it

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