The site of a gas line rupture outside Grand River Hospital was quiet Friday.
The day before, natural gas was sprayed into the air for 45 minutes as an excavator accidentally cut a two-inch hole in a four-inch gas line.
“We were all a little nervous,” said Michelle McDonnell, who works at a nearby pharmacy.
Firefighters came into the pharmacy and told the people inside to shut their windows and shut off the HVAC system, but McDonnell said they didn’t say much about what was actually taking place on King Street.
“We … didn’t know the full extent of what was really happening,” she said.
It took more than five hours for gas service to be restored to all properties.
Crews had to shut down four gas lines to solve the problem.
For a period of time, Grand River Hospital was diverting ambulances with non-emergency patients elsewhere.
The hospital itself was not evacuated, although other businesses in the area were.
“If it had been an imminent danger and people needed to be removed outside that immediate area, that would have happened,” said Avril Fisken, a spokesperson for GrandLinq – the consortium conducting the construction work.
Authorities spent Friday debriefing crews, to learn exactly what happened and if proper protocols were followed.
“If we need to make any improvements, then we’ve got the right people in the room,” Fisken said.
