POST FALLS - Several city center residents were evacuated from their homes late Monday night after a DUI suspect allegedly ran into a parked vehicle and the side of a historic home, severing a natural gas line.

Karen L. Williams, 55, Post Falls, was arrested on DUI charges. She suffered minor injuries and no one inside the home was injured.

Williams told police she had just left the Eagles bar on Railroad Avenue.

Police reported the 1991 Toyota Corolla she was driving struck a Pontiac Grand Am GT less than a half block away and then went over a curb, through a fence and struck the side of the home at 202 E. Fourth Ave. across from the Chamber of Commerce and City Hall.

The crash damaged the chimney to the early 1900s two-story home and severed a gas line, displacing the occupants for the rest of the night.

"The chimney prevented the car from going inside the home and the car got stuck on the gas meter," said Denise, who owns the home, lives nearby and declined to give her last name for privacy reasons. "I'm just glad that no one was seriously hurt. Things can be fixed."

She doesn't have insurance on the home and is hoping Williams' insurance will cover the property damage and the renters' motel bill. The occupants returned to the home on Tuesday.

The crash was reported at 11:34 p.m.

"On scene, officers determined that the gas leak posed a risk to the entire area," a police press release states. "They evacuated numerous residents within a several-block radius."

Kootenai County Fire and Rescue assisted Post Falls Police with the evacuation process.

Police say Williams was "highly intoxicated" based on field sobriety results at the scene and her being unable to stand up straight or speak clearly. She was allegedly uncooperative at the jail and declined to take a breathalyzer test.

Williams asked an officer what had happened after the crash, according to the police report.