Accident Wednesday took out a high pressure gas line

Heather Wright/The Independent

St Clair Fire Chief Richard Boyes expects the intersection at Petrolia Line and Mandaumin Road will reopen this afternoon.

That after an accident led to a gas leak that was only contained this morning.

Around 9 am Wednesday, two vehicles collided at the intersection and ended up in the ditch on top of a major gas line. The impact broke the line.

“Immediately, the people got out and they were sent to the hospital with some injuries,” Boyes tells The Independent. Three people had non-life threatening injuries according to Lambton OPP. “But then the biggest issue was, it’s a high pressure gas line, and it’s very complicated to get it shut off.

Boyes says Enbridge considered shutting the line off but the turn offs on natural gas lines are very far apart. Turning this line off to stop the gas from venting would have left the entire community of Wyoming, Clean Harbors and nearby farms without gas during one of the coldest days of the winter.

Instead, Enbridge decided to plug the line as close to the leak as they could.

“They had to tap a live main to be able to shut it off. So it was a long process, and they just got it shut off about an hour ago,” Boyes said at 9:30 am Thursday.

“The gas lines right under the middle of the road. So they had to dig up big chunk of Mandaumin to get down to the gas main, to plug it,” he added.

“They’re gonna have to fix the hole in the road, and then they’ll ultimately have to fix the gas line as well. But hopefully we’ll get the road open by noon.”

About six firefighters from St. Clair Township and Petrolia were on the scene the whole time since the vehicles on top of the leaking gas line posed a risk. “We’re always worried about ignition sources, and one of the cars was a Tesla at the bottom of the ditch. So, we weren’t sure. With that the other cars, they all have electronics in them and the batteries are still connected, so you never know if there’s something causes ignition.”

Boyes said Enbridge workers were constantly monitoring the leak and the direction the gas was venting.

“The wind was in the right direction and was blowing out over the fields, so there was no impact to any of the residences. We did constant testing – Enbridge did that. So, it was just a long, complicated process to get it done, and of course, to do it safely.”

Enbridge firmed up their plan of action around 7:30 pm and a crew from Toronto came in and “worked all night and plugged it this morning,” added Boyes.

“It was just a complicated process to get to the end result which, in the end, resulted in no outages to any residents or businesses, and nobody was hurt in the process. So that’s the best outcome possible.”