On Friday morning, Nelson Fire Rescue evacuated residents in Uphill upon responding to a call reporting that a residential gas line had been hit.
The line in the 400 block of Howe Street was pulled by a backhoe and gas was leaking, says a release issued by the fire department.
It was just after 9 a.m. and the on-duty Nelson Fire crew attended immediately with one additional member responding from home.
“Upon arrival of the crew a strong odour of natural gas was apparent as well as a pulled line extruding from the ground. The wind was blowing the escaping gas towards the residential properties on the north side of the street and in all, four houses were evacuated as a safety precaution,” said Assistant Fire Chief Michael Daloise.
A high volume fan was used to direct and dissipate the escaping gas away from the houses and any potential ignition sources.
Nelson public works crews responded to assist Fortis Gas with excavating the line. Nelson Hydro crews responded to ensure that the excavation did not compromise the hydro pole. Fortis Gas was able to crimp off the line and stop the flow of gas.
As fire crews were picking up from this call, they received another reporting lines down and sparking on Perrier Road. Along with Nelson Hydro, they attended to assess the situation.
“As it turned out the lines down were telephone and television lines,” said Daloise in a press release. “The sparking was a result of the lines contacting each other when the other lines were pulled.”
The assistance chief said Nelson Fire Rescue would like to remind everyone to ensure that they have made all of the necessary calls prior to doing any excavation and to always treated downed lines as potentially “live” until hydro crews can get on scene and confirm that there is no danger.