Emergency officials evacuated three businesses along St. Albert Trail Tuesday morning due to a “potential explosion hazard” caused by a natural gas leak.
Fire officials evacuated Riverside Honda, Rona and the St. Albert Bowling Centre Tuesday morning after a backhoe struck a large gas line near St. Albert Trail and Inglewood Drive.
The address cited by the city as the location of the strike is where GoodLife Fitness, a gym expected to open next year, is being built.
According to Fire Chief Ray Richards and Keith Carter, vice president of operations in the Edmonton region for Atco Gas, a contractor excavating in the area struck a six-inch wide natural gas line at about 9:15 a.m. (A gas line that services a home is less than an inch wide.)
“It was quite a bit of natural gas that was escaping,” Richards said.
The line was pressurized to 80 pounds at the time, and produced a hiss he said was about 10 times louder than that of an open valve on a barbecue propane tank.
Atco and St. Albert fire crews secured the site soon after. A press release from the city noted that there was a noticeable smell of natural gas in the region after the leak.
Nearby businesses that were not evacuated were still able to use their heat but were warned about possibly having to evacuate.
“They’ve got us kind of on standby,” said Eric Larson of Speedy Glass. “Someone’s come by every 15 to 20 minutes to check on us.”
Across Inglewood Drive at Dulux Paints, Lian O’Donovan said the staff was told they were fine to stay open unless they started smelling gas.
Capt. Steve Ganton, who was on scene for the fire department, said the gas release was “a potential explosion hazard.”
Although strong winds dispersed much of the gas, there was still the risk that it could accumulate in local buildings, Richards said.
“It could have been exposed to a flame, it could have ignited, and we would have had a very serious problem,” he said.
The leak did not result in any fire or injuries, he added.
Ganton said it would take some time to repair the leak as it is a major gas line. Because it delivers gas in a continuous loop, there are no shut-off valves.
Atco crews used backhoes to dig holes on either side of the line break and managed to stop the flow of gas by about 12:55 p.m., Carter said. This involved digging down to get to the pipe and physically pinching it off from either side of the rupture.
Carter said regular gas service to the area would be restored Tuesday evening. Riverside Honda, St. Albert Bowling Centre and Rona stayed closed for the rest of the day.
Atco planned to investigate the cause of the leak, Carter said. He was not sure if the contractor had called the provincial One-Call hotline to determine the line’s location before digging.
Anyone who plans to dig should call the Alberta One-Call hotline at 1-800-242-3447 at least two business days before they start excavating to identify the location of buried power and gas lines, Carter said. For details, visit alberta1call.com.
