ELIZABETH – A natural gas line on Newark Road caught fire Thursday afternoon outside of Elizabeth, said Elizabeth-Wirt Volunteer Fire Department Chief Stephen Settle.

Newark Road was closed for about two hours as officials waited for the gas line to be shut off.

“Before we got the gas turned off, it was a large and impressive fire,” Settle said. “After the gas was shut off, it was just a small brush fire we had to deal with, which was easy and quickly out.”

The Wirt County Sheriff’s Office and Mountaineer Gas also responded to the scene.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

“It appears the gas line was already ruptured,” Settle said. “We believe the fire may have started by someone smoking a cigarette in the area of the line.”

No injuries were reported.

The gas line leak was discovered along W.Va. 6 (Newark Road) near Newark, said Wirt County Sheriff’s Deputy Lew Peck.

A leak ignited a small fire, Peck said. The fire is how officials discovered the leak.

The fire department posted on its Facebook page for people to “stay away from Newark Road near the 200 and 300 block.”

“Road is completely closed from Route 53 to Exline Camp Road due to a mainline gas leak with fire,” the post said.

Peck said it was a high pressure line.

“We did not know what kind of buildup was underneath,” he said. “For safety sake, we shut down the road.”