Huge fire following an Enbridge gas line rupture near Prince George Tuesday night. Photo courtesy Twitter/Jeff Miller.
The RCMP says there are no indications a gas line explosion Tuesday night in northern B.C. was the result of criminal activity.
Police are investigating the cause of a ruptured Enbridge natural gas pipeline about 15 kilometres northeast of Prince George that caused a huge fire in the small community of Shelley.
The investigation has been turned over the Transportation Safety Board, with help from the National Energy Board (NEB) and Enbridge.
RCMP say there were no injuries or damage reported to properties in the vicinity.
The blast forced the evacuation of about 100 residents of the Lhedli T’enneh First Nation, who police say were allowed to return home within a couple of hours.
Enbridge says the NEB allowed gas to resume flowing Wednesday night through a smaller 30-inch pipeline after confirming it was undamaged by the ruptured 36-inch line.
Fortis BC, which supplies natural gas to more than a million customers in the province, said in a statement Thursday that it is “a positive step to returning our system to normal”, but warns the gas supply is still constrained until the damaged line is fixed.
.@Enbridge has received approval to restart its 30-inch natural gas line. However, gas supply will continue to be constrained and we are asking our customers to help conserve. Learn more. https://t.co/SV1ZTmI2bk
— FortisBC (@FortisBC) October 11, 2018
Customers in B.C. are being asked to turn down the use of natural gas appliances.
Consumers in Washington were also told to restrict their use of natural gas because of the ruptured line near Prince George, but both Puget Sound Energy and Cascade Natural Gas say service has returned to normal.
SERVICE IN WESTERN WASHINGTON RETURNING TO NORMAL
Residential & business customers can return to normal usage immediately. Industrial customers will be able to return to normal usage over the course of today & Friday as natural gas supply increases. Read: https://t.co/8KMroZXjWH pic.twitter.com/daFxdZiky1— Cascade Natural Gas (@cascadenatgas) October 11, 2018
Thanks to a combination of efforts from our customers and partnering with other NW utilities, the natural gas system has stabilized and PSE is beginning to return to normal operations. We will continue to monitor the natural gas system as Enbridge works on their supply pipeline. pic.twitter.com/uE8CDBsHdJ
— Puget Sound Energy (@PSETalk) October 11, 2018
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