A major gas leak in downtown Osoyoos Friday disrupted business activities and the lives of residents in the area, but fortunately there were no injuries or serious damage.
Although gas company FortisBC is not saying much about the cause of the accident pending its investigation, it appears construction workers installing a storm sewer hit an abandoned gas pipe that wasn’t on FortisBC’s location charts.
That pipe broke off at its junction with a two-inch main supplying gas to about 60 homes and businesses in the area.
A FortisBC spokesperson referred to the episode as “something of a non-event” because the company was able to fix the problem that afternoon and there was no serious harm done.
It’s a more serious concern, however, if FortisBC doesn’t take this incident as a wake-up call.
It’s good advice to urge people to “Call before you dig!” But it doesn’t do much good if FortisBC can’t readily identify abandoned pipes that might still be connected to main lines, as apparently happened.
Even more disturbing, it seems this was not the only time pipes not appearing on plans were encountered by the construction contractors.
Although natural gas, because it rises and dissipates, is less dangerous than other gases such as propane, there was still potential for disaster.
As Osoyoos Fire Chief Rick Jones points out, gas concentrations could have built up to such an extent that any spark, even from a light switch, could have triggered an explosion. And gas was coming into Home Hardware where a number of potentially hazardous products are sold.
The incident certainly wasn’t a “non-event” for the businesses in the area that had to close, even though they took it in stride.
Even most Town of Osoyoos office employees were sent home out of safety concerns. At the very least, it was a disruption.
It would be premature to put the blame on FortisBC at least until the incident is thoroughly investigated. If, however, the company is found to have been at fault by not disclosing all the locations of its pipelines, it would be appropriate for them to offer compensation to those businesses that lost income due to the incident.
FortisBC has a serious public image problem, whether deserved or not, due to other issues such as electrical rates and smart meters.
This incident will reflect further on this monopoly’s image.
Most importantly, however, there needs to be a better system in place for identifying abandoned pipes and other hazards.
Next time we may not be so lucky.
