Homes were evacuated and a section of a busy east London, Ont., roadway was shut down Monday after a vehicle struck a home and hit the gas meter.
The crash on Highbury Avenue North, just north of Hamilton Road, occurred at roughly 10:30 a.m. Monday.
“There were no injuries from what we see but we do have a very volatile situation with a gas line that we can’t get shut off without the assistance of Enbridge Gas,” platoon chief Gary Mossberger said Monday morning.
Enbridge staff arrived on scene at roughly 11:30 a.m. Monday. In an update just after 1 p.m., the fire department said the gas leak was “resolved” and evacuees were allowed to return to their homes, but gas remained off at the house that was struck.
Mossberger referenced the Woodman Avenue explosion in August 2019 that saw one house levelled and two others requiring demolition to explain why it is so important to shut the gas off.
“We’ve seen the ramifications of what that can look like and we obviously are taking every precaution necessary to obviously not have that happen here.”
Mossberger added that at least 10 homes had been evacuated.
He said it was unclear whether the home where the gas meter was struck had people inside it at the time, but a spokesperson later said that two dogs remained inside the house as it was deemed too dangerous for firefighters to enter the home. At 3:30 p.m. Monday, the spokesperson confirmed to Global News that “the dogs were reported safe with a resident of that home.”
Highbury Avenue North between Hamilton Road and Trafalgar Street was closed for a few hours. London police said the investigation into the crash is ongoing.