Big gas leak contained in Vancouver
Posted September 20, 2012 5:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Several patients are okay after their surgeries were interrupted by a gas leak near Cambie Street this morning.
Vancouver Fire crews say just after 9 a.m. a construction crew drilling at a site on West 7th near Ash Street struck a big natural gas line, sending the pungent vapour into the air and the stench all over the neighbourhood.
Twelve buildings had to be evacuated, forcing hundreds of people into the surrounding streets.
The False Creek Healthcare Centre was also forced to close as doctors performed surgeries on several patients.
Dr. Mark Godley says thankfully the surgeries were almost finished.
“The timing was fortuitous that it wasn’t in the middle of a major procedure,” notes Godley, adding the patients were taken to VGH to recover.
Fire Batallion Chief Terrance Nikolai says Fortis initially thought it was a smaller gas line that had been struck and closed off the smaller line.
He says as far as he knows the construction crew had schematics but they might not have been completely up to date.
“They realized that was not the line, it was actually a 16-inch line which was further under the roadway than the three-inch,” he says. “That one took half a dozen locations of valves to shut down, which took quite a long time to actually get to those locations, and they have to shut them off in a certain sequence.”
“And under the circumstances they did a fantastic job and had it shut off in a real timely manner,” Nikolai adds.
Just after 3pm, people were allowed to return to their homes and offices.
Nikolai says people who still smell natural gas ought to open their doors and windows to let it clear out.