REGINA BEACH – A week and half after the gas line explosion in Regina Beach that left a home a darkened crater, residents are feeling a sense of recovery and worry.
“It was like a war zone, after,” said Gloria Donovel, who was working at her store Donovel’s Gas Bar and Confectionary when the explosion happened. “Is this the end? It’ll probably happen again, or it could happen again.”
The question of whether residents should be worried about another natural gas explosion happening in the area was posed to SaskEnergy:
“I think they should just be as aware as any other SaskEnergy customer that you need to be vigilant,” said Dave Burdeniuk, media relations director for the crown.
“We can understand that people would be anxious but we also have faced ground shifting since we put our first pipeline in the ground in 1952 in Saskatchewan.”
Ground shifting is believed to be the cause behind the natural gas leak.
According to SaskEnergy, Regina Beach wasn’t as prone to ground shifting until last summer’s intense rainfall.
In some years, there was just a couple or no underground leaks whatsoever in the town.
This year, there have been about 20 underground leaks in the community out of a province-wide total of about 200 leaks.
“We were in that community doing leak surveying, we were repairing underground leaks that we found, we were upgrading our system, but the events of Dec. 3 warrant that we have to do more,” said Burdeniuk.
Trent Taylor, who lives a few doors down from the home that was destroyed, wasn’t in town when the explosion occurred. His home sustained minor damage but he was forced to spend five days in a hotel. He, too worries about another natural gas explosion occurring in the area.
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