A natural gas leak at Eau Claire's Oakwood Mall Sunday shut down a few stores for a short time.

Eau Claire Fire Battalion Chief, Kim Nessel, says a mall employee was removing snow, when a hydraulically-operated snow bucket hit a natural gas meter.

When firefighters got to the scene, Nessell says they evacuated 5 stores inside the mall, including Hollister and Vanity.

He says the stores have air intakes for heating and cooling near where the gas leak happened, which could have brought fumes into the area.

While it is common to have natural gas breaks this time of the year, Nessel says it can be avoided.

Eau Claire Battalion Chief, Kim Nessel says, "Make sure there's no ice build-ups above where there are natural gas regulators or natural gas meters on the exteriors of buildings. If there is, they should take care of that so the meters don't get hit by the falling ice."

A crew from Xcel Energy was still on scene hours after the break, making sure the gas regulator was fixed.

Nessel says the 5 stores re-opened within an hour.

He says there were no injuries.