No evacuation was needed after firefighters received a report of a gas leak at a large care facility in Courtenay on Thursday evening.
The Courtenay Fire Department was called to the Ocean Front Village at 2900 Cliffe Ave. around 9:30 p.m. for a report of a natural gas smell.
Other first responders, including paramedics and police, also responded to the call – with Mounties blocking off roads to the building in three separate directions.
Courtenay Deputy Fire Chief George Seigler says it seemed like a gas leak was coming from the kitchen area of the facility.
“There was a potential leak in the kitchen, that’s where we were smelling it the most, although we didn’t get any readings,” he said.
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The care home is pictured on Jan. 4, 2024.
Seigler says the manager of the building reached out to its utilities provider, which will handle next steps.
“They’ll attend, they’ll have to fire up each machine to see where the leak is,” he said.
In the meantime, residents did not have to evacuate the building because of the natural gas smell.
Seigler says he’s grateful for the help of all first responders involved, including police who were looking into transit options in case an evacuation was necessary.
If an evacuation was needed, Seigler noted that it would have been complicated because of an ongoing transit strike in the Comox Valley area.
That being said, Seigler added that the Ocean Front Village facility is separated into three parts, which have fire walls installed in between them, allowing residents to shelter in place if necessary if an emergency is affecting only one part of the building.
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Adam Chan
