FERGUS – A portion of Highway 6 (St. David Street North) in Fergus was closed and a number of businesses evacuated on Sunday due to a gas leak.
Centre Wellington deputy fire chief Jonathan Karn said a 911 call came in around noon on May 14 and the Fergus station responded.
The leak occurred at a construction site in front of the Best Western Hotel in the north part of town.
“A construction crew hit a large gas line. There was a large volume of gas,” Karn said.
With the smell of gas in the air, several businesses on Highway 6 were evacuated, including the hotel, Tim Hortons, the Esso gas station, Robinson Chrysler and Robinson Get Hitched RV centre.
Karn said the gas odour could be detected in the Wal-Mart parking lot across the street, but there was no gas leak or smell inside the store.
Enbridge Gas arrived on the scene after about 40 minutes, turned off the gas and commenced repairs.
“We helped them locate the shut off and had gas monitors in different buildings,” Karn said, adding firefighters were on scene for about two hours.
The OPP closed a portion of Highway 6 for a few hours too, to divert traffic from the area as a precaution.
Karn said no private homes were impacted but about 30 guests at the hotel were evacuated.
There were no high readings inside any of the buildings firefighters checked, “but they can get to explosive levels,” he added.
“If gas finds an ignition source, that’s when you can run into trouble.”
