A homeowner who was digging in their garden in Vancouver’s Cambie Village neighbourhood hit a residential gas line Saturday morning, leading to the evacuation of several houses and a highrise in the area, Vancouver Fire Rescue tells 1130 NewsRadio.
Emergency crews were called to the home, located in the area of Cambie Street and West 12th Avenue, around 10 a.m., acting assistant fire chief Brian MacGillivray says.
McGillivary says the gas line was ruptured, causing gas to escape.
“Fire crews came on scene, and they had to evacuate the highrise at Cambie and 12th, and then four other houses as well, and then contacted [FortisBC],” he said.
“Fortis got a crew together, and then Fortis came and basically took over and made sure there was no more gas being leaked and looked after everything.”
FortisBC’s Nicholas Insley says about 17 customers were affected by the issue. As of shortly after 1 p.m., crews had completed repairs to the system.
He says now that repairs are complete, crews need to go through the work of restoring service.
“[This] means visiting each one of the affected homes to turn gas back on at the meter and then safely relight all appliances.”
Insley says anyone planning to dig should call BC 1 Call, a non-profit organization that provides information on buried gas or utility lines.
“A lot of these sorts of incidents are preventable,” he said.