Firefighters respond to a gas leak in Colwood on Oct. 12, 2018.
Royal Bay Secondary School was briefly evacuated Friday morning after a gas leak in the area.
Multiple Colwood Fire Rescue units and a unit from View Royal Fire Department responded to a single gas line strike at a townhouse complex off Latoria Boulevard. FortisBC was also called to the incident.
Capt. Bryan Erwin with Colwood Fire Rescue said landscaping was being done at the time of the incident. Thirty units in the complex were evacuated.
Officials at the school chose to evacuate to a nearby field at around 11:10 a.m. due to the smell of natural gas coming in through the air intake. Erwin said the wind direction caused the odour to spread.
“There were no injuries,” Erwin said. “Precautionary measures were taken.”
Early lunch for #SD62 Royal Bay students! School has temporarily evacuated due to gas smell. Air intake pulled in the fumes from a gas leak in the neighbourhood. Thanks to @cityofcolwood Fire rescue and @FortisBC for getting to the scene quickly! Good thing it's a nice day out!
— School District #62 (@SD62_Sooke) October 12, 2018
By 11:55 a.m., Colwood Fire Rescue said the school was safe to re-enter. Students and staff went back into the building at the time and classes resumed for the remainder of the day.
Colwood Fire Rescue has deemed Royal Bay Secondary safe to re-enter. Students and staff are heading back in. Thanks for everyone's cooperation and patience! Happy Friday! #Colwood #SD62
— School District #62 (@SD62_Sooke) October 12, 2018
Latoria Road from Ryder Hesjedal Way to Metchosin Road was also closed for about 45 minutes but has since reopened. Thirty FortisBC customers are expected to be without gas as repairs are done but that should be completed in an hour. Technicians will go door-to-door to affected customers to relight their gas.
Anyone who comes home to a red tag on the door will need to call the number on it for a technician to come and relight their pilots safely
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