Gas Leak

Tuesday, 6 May 2014 at 10:19

A natural gas leak in northeast Woodstock shut down Lansdowne Ave for over 90 minutes Monday morning.

WOODSTOCK -- A gas leak ended up forcing the shutdown of a portion of Lansdowne Ave for almost two hours Monday morning.

The incident happened at about 10:15am Monday behind a home located at 2 Cardinal Drive.

Derek Belore who lives across the street on Lansdowne says he started smelling the gas around the same time crews arrived.

"I was just working on my front porch actually, I smelt a little bit of gas and when I looked behind me, there was a firefighter telling me to evacuate."

Constable Steve McEwen with Woodstock Police on scene said a high pressure gas line was struck by a post-hole digger.

Rob MacKay, Owner of Flawless Fence was working the site, and said the gas line surprised him and his crew.

"Yeah, we had all of our locates done, they weren't located at all, we had the all clear and there ended up being a gas line that wasn't where it was supposed to be -- It's a good reason to get your dig locates done though, because stuff like this can happen."

In a message later Monday to Heart FM, homeowner Sherri Lester says workers hired to build a new fence requested the locates of area gas lines two weeks ago, saying there was no indication of another gas main by Union Gas on the locate sheets provided. She's thankful that no one was hurt and also thanked the Woodstock Fire and Police for their quick response.

"When they went to dig the first fence hole, the auger hit the gas line and we all went running." Lester said.

"This could have been very serious as the three of us were standing right beside the auger and hitting that line could have cost three of us our lives."

Evie, who lives two houses down from the leak, said she and her family didn't have time to get their belongings once police and fire crews arrived on scene to evacuate.

"We left the keys inside the house and we didn't think any of us had them, but about twenty minutes later my mom said she had the car keys, but our stroller was inside the trunk. We weren't allowed to get it ourselves, but one of the firemen and the police lady got it for us."

Two Woodstock Transit buses arrived to provide a warm place to sit for displaced residents while officials with Woodstock Police, Fire, EMS and Union Gas controlled the scene.

No one was hurt and Lansdowne Ave re-opened to traffic shortly after Noon. Residents were allowed back to their homes a short time later.