Public allowed back into downtown buildings after gas leak prompts evacuation

Residents and employees are being allowed back into buildings in part of downtown London after roughly eight city blocks were shut down and an evacuation order was issued more than an hour prior.

Members of the public were evacuated from buildings and sidewalks in the area surrounding Talbot and Dufferin streets after a gas line was struck. 

"During some construction today, a gas main was ruptured," said Brent Shea, a London Fire Department platoon chief manager.

A spokesperson for Enbridge Gas, which had crews on scene to cap the leak, said a contractor hit a pipeline with an excavator but no customers lost gas service as a result of the incident.

According to Shea, the leak originated from a construction area between two under-construction buildings, one of which is London's tallest building, in the block of Talbot Street between Dufferin Avenue and Fullarton Street.

Shea said the move to evacuate more than just the block where the leak happened was out of an abundance of caution.

"The concern in these situations that air handling units can draw in the natural gas into a building, creating an explosive environment. So we just want to make sure everything is safe," Shea said.

The evacuation saw dozens of people from multiple residential buildings and nearby offices waiting in the heat as first responders and Enbridge crews worked to contain the leak.