The smell of natural gas emanating from Delta in January resulted in 42 calls for service to Richmond Fire-Rescue.
These calls to homes in Richmond were for the smell of natural gas, both inside or outside residences, and took place over a 14-hour period on Jan. 16 and 17.
The gas released on the evening of Jan. 16 led to a large gas cloud moving across the Lower Mainland, impacting residents in many communities, including Richmond, explained Richmond fire chief Jim Wishlove.
FortisBC told the Richmond News the smell resulted from work being done on new equipment at the FortisBC Interconnect Station in Ladner. The equipment wasn't connected to the gas system at the time.
As part of this work, there was a controlled release of gas that contained an elevated level of "odorant," a chemical put into natural gas as a warning in the event of a leak (natural gas itself is odourless).
The issue of the hazmat calls came up this week at city council’s community safety committee.
Normally, Richmond Fire-Rescue responds to just a handful of hazardous material calls per month.
Delta’s emergency services were also “bombarded” with calls and the mayor, George Harvie, blasted FortisBC for not notifying local residents for four hours, calling it “unacceptable.”
“Delta Police and Delta Fire were bombarded with calls about the odour and Delta Fire crews attended to each of these calls to ensure there was no on-site gas leak. The failure of Fortis BC to communicate this gas odour leak had a serious impact on our emergency services whose resources should be dedicated to real emergencies,” Harvie said in a statement.
Currently, the City of Richmond’s emergency programs are working with representatives from FortisBC on improved communications between the gas utility and the city, Wishlove said.
Furthermore, they are planning some combined exercises in the future to better help FortisBC to collaborate with Richmond Fire-Rescue and the city’s emergency planners and communicators, he added.
- With files from the Delta Optimist
