Gas leak forces evacuation
Posted Mar 11, 2012 9:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Dozens of people were forced from their homes Sunday morning in Sunnyside, in Calgary’s northwest, because of a natural gas leak.
Emergency crews were called out just before 7 a.m. and alerted residents as soon as they arrived.
30 people are waiting in a city transit bus while ATCO and Calgary Fire crews are on scene resolving the situation.
Calgary Fire Battalion Chief Al Magwood tells 660News an excavation at a nearby residence caused the leak in a gas line.
“With the earth being frozen the way it is now, is that occasionally you’ll get a piece of earth breaking away and then it just tumbles into the hole and unfortunately this time it struck a gas line,” says Magwood.
Magwood says ATCO has closed off the line and crews are monitoring the houses for any gas pockets in order to make sure it’s safe for the residents to go home.
Roads are also closed in the area of the leak at 7th Avenue and 5th Street N.W.
