WESTLOCK – Although a large volume of natural gas was seen spewing from a severed gas line early last week, fire officials say the public was never in danger.
Town of Westlock fire chief Stuart Koflick, said they received a call from a downtown business around 11:30 a.m., Oct. 25, regarding an overwhelming smell of natural gas. Koflick attended the area around Memorial Hall on 106th Street and after speaking with the contractor, was advised they had struck a gas service line while they were back-filling.
“I dispatched fire units to the scene as a precaution to conduct atmospheric (gas) testing of the area to ensure that there was no danger to the public,” said Koflick, noting that natural gas is lighter than air and with the wind gusting from 20 to 25 km/h it “dissipated into the atmosphere almost immediately” and there was no risk to the public.
Fire crews remained on scene for a handful of hours until the contractor capped the leak and returned it to service.
The Town of Westlock is one of three communities, along with Morinville and the Hamlet of Pickardville, having its natural gas main and service pipeline infrastructure replaced as part of an Apex Utilities multi-million-dollar revitalization program. The replacement project began in May and while initially slated to be done by the end of September, is now scheduled to be finished by early November.
Supervisor, regulatory communications, and research for Apex Utilities Inc. Chantal Row, said that the leak was due to a pipeline being damaged by a contractor on 106th Street and only one customer was affected.
“There was no risk to the public or the integrity of our distribution system as the hit line was a single service (line) to only one residence,” she said. “Our crews responded expediently and effectively repaired the line within two hours.”
Throughout the pipeline replacement project, the company has had controlled releases, but last Tuesday’s incident was unexpected, noted Town of Westlock director of operations Robin Benoit.
“They have an emergency response plan, so they put that plan in action and isolated the area,” said Benoit. “They have their safety procedures that they enact in a situation like this … it’s for public safety and they did a very good job at that.”
