Dawson Currie/For The Independent

Patients at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital in Petrolia were evacuated for a gas leak Wednesday night.

Petrolia/North Enniskillen Fire Department was called to the hospital just before 8 pm for reports of a natural gas smell in the basement of the main building. Firefighters found hospital staff already working on evacuating patients from the Emergency Department and Acute Care unit. Lambton paramedics were also called in to help transport patients to Bluewater Health in Sarnia if needed.

After the evacuation of patients, firefighters – who were told a contractor working on the building had accidentally caused damage to a natural gas line in the hospital’s kitchen – found the leak and stopped the leak. Then they ventilated the building.

Enbridge Gas arrived on scene to make repairs to the damaged section of gas line.

Patients were allowed to return to the building in about 45 minutes. Bluewater Health says ambulances were redirected to Sarnia for approximately three hours during the response.

No one was injured in the incident.