Several homes were evacuated and power was shut off to a portion of London’s Old East Village on Wednesday after a natural gas leak was reported near the site of a major construction project along Adelaide Street.
The gas leak was reported shortly before 1 p.m. in the 600-block of Adelaide Street, near Central Avenue and the CP Rail crossing, the London Fire Department said in a tweet.
The area is currently the focus of extensive infrastructure work as part of the long-awaited Adelaide Street underpass project.
The leak is believed to be connected to the construction work, said London Platoon Chief Kirk Loveland, however he noted he was unable to confirm who and what caused the accidental break and where.
“Enbridge Gas is in the process of shutting off the gas supply to that break. What they do is they shut it off, then the pressure has to release out of the lines and that scene will be totally stabilized,” Loveland said shortly before 4 p.m.
“We have a perimeter set up, London fire has, where we have evacuated an area. We have the people from that area sheltered in buses. Kids are coming home, so the command chief on scene was proactive and got some buses there.”
Adelaide Street was closed between Central Avenue and Pall Mall Street for several hours, while nearly 2,000 people near the scene and in the Old East Village were without power, according to London Hydro.
Kirkland said crews have been monitoring nearby homes with gas detectors to ensure that the leak isn’t causing natural gas to collect to dangerous, combustible levels. So far, he says, crews have seen no deflections of gas in the residences.
“The good thing (is) it’s venting and it’s venting into the atmosphere where it can’t get in accumulations to put in the explosive range … We’ve got a good wind blowing it around and it’ll just dissipate,” he said.
Crews were given the green light to allow those evacuated to return home shortly after 6pm.
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