Ankeny Fire Department Responds to Gas Leak at Ace Hardware
ANKENY, IOWA (Nov. 11, 2025) – Today, at approximately 2:35 PM, the Ankeny Fire Department was dispatched to a gas leak at Ace Hardware, located at 3020 SW Oralabor Road in Ankeny. The 911 call came in from a company on-site that was doing maintenance on the propane filling station. Initial reports from the company completing the maintenance work indicated that in the course of replacing a pump, a leak occurred just below a valve on the underground propane tank which had about 600 gallons of propane in it.
When crews from the Ankeny Fire Department and Ankeny Police Department arrived, they found a white vapor cloud coming from the area of the propane filling station on the NW side of the Ace Hardware. Crews immediately began to evacuate an adjacent neighborhood and cordoned off the area as a precaution. In addition, crews evacuated the entire row of businesses at the location and shut off utilities to Ace Hardware, 1 Source Solar, and other suites.
The Ankeny Fire Department dispatched the Des Moines Fire Department Hazardous Materials team to the scene and together, along with the propane company on-site, were able to mitigate the situation in about 4 hours. Neighbors were allowed back into their homes, and the incident was turned back over to the property owners and the propane company.
The Ankeny Fire Department would like to thank these agencies for their assistance: Ankeny Police Department, Johnston-Grimes Metropolitan Fire District, Des Moines Fire Department and the Polk County Sherriff’s Office Communications Center.