Prevent Gas Line Explosions When Doing Work Around Your House
You have bought your new home and have decided to make some improvements. The good weather seems like an invitation to go ahead. All you want to do for now is replace the small fence and plant a few trees for privacy.
In the majority of cases the contractor will proceed and begin digging giving no thought to all those utilities buried in your yard or under your front lawn, such as water, phone company and cable TV lines and of course natural gas pipelines.
Last year a woman died in her home in the Moore Park neighbourhood near Mount Pleasant and St. Clair Avenue when a pipe fitter, working for a contractor hired by Enbridge Gas, was removing an old gas line which was in the basement of the house. The worker was rescued by neighbours and received second-degree burns.
You may already know that before doing any digging you must make a call to “Ontario One Call” (www.on1call.com, or 1-800-400-2255) to ensure you would not be hitting your gas line running along the side of your home.
But what if your neighbours are about to dig on their lot?
This is no time to be shy or to find out the politically correct way of asking. This can be a matter of life and death. In 2007 there were more than 3500 gas line hits in Ontario. Ask your neighbours if they or their contractors have verified the exact location of the gas line on their property. To make doubly sure, visit www.on1call.com, or call 1-800-400-2255 yourself.
Unfortunately the majority of gas line explosions in Canada are the result of work being done without verifying the location of gas lines and other utilities such as telephone and electrical cables.
It is disturbing to learn that Canada lags far behind the US in its prevention and enforcement efforts. Erica Johnson a CBC reporter, blames many of these serious accidents on “a culture of complacency.” Of the thousands of gas-line hits last year in Ontario, only one warranted a fine against the offending contractor.
Watch the CBC video at http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2008/01/16/digging_deep/