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Gas leak behind CityWest

A vehicle backed into a gas metre, splitting it open and allowing natural gas to escape behind the CityWest building on Tuesday afternoon.
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A vehicle backed into a gas metre on Jan. 31

A vehicle backed into a gas metre, splitting it open and allowing natural gas to escape behind the CityWest building on Tuesday afternoon.

The Prince Rupert Fire Department responded to a call of an explosion and a gas leak near Second Street and firefighters had everyone evacuate from the CityWest building.

Pacific Northern Gas was on the scene within minutes and repaired the metre right away, tested it, and once it was determined to be safe everyone was allowed to return to the building.

“It had the potential to be something bigger but luckily it wasn’t,” Fire Chief Dave Mckenzie said.

Emergency responders had blocked off Second Street between Third and Second Avenue for approximately an hour to keep the area cordoned off while the metre was being repaired.

Mckenzie said there will be more repairs to the barricade to better protect the gas metre.

CityWest commented on the incident on their Facebook page.

"An accident outside our Prince Rupert office caused a minor gas leak in our building. As a precaution we evacuated our staff from the building.

Thanks to the quick response from the local Police and Fire Department the situation has been resolved. We apologize to our customers for any inconveniences."