Comms tower excavation blamed for gas leak

Excavation around the base of a new communications tower is being blamed for a gas leak which caused the evacuation of more than 100 people from around the centre of Maraenui in Napier.

About 20 police staff as well as Maori Wardens worked door-to-door moving people out of the Maraenui shopping centre and nearby homes shortly after 12.15pm yesterday.

The evacuated included students, children and teachers from a kohanga reo and the EIT Learning Centre.

Maraenui police sergeant Philip Rowden said people had begun to notice the smell of gas wafting over their community earlier in the morning.

The communications tower alongside the service lane at the rear of the shops between Bledisloe Rd and Longfellow Ave was erected on Wednesday. Police understood an excavator had ruptured the line yesterday.

Geddis Ave traffic was stopped from entering the area at the intersections of Bright Cr and Longfellow Ave, and a Bledisloe Rd closure to the Maraenui Challenge Service Station intersection of Longfellow and Bledisloe Rd was extended west to Barnard Ave as the northwesterly breeze wafted gas across the area.

"We had to move people out to a 100 metre radius outside the shopping centre, to outlining streets around Geddis and Longfellow," Mr Rowden said.

"It was timely we had about six Maori Wardens who were around and they jumped on board to assist us with the evacuation."

Police reported one antagonising moment, when a teenager walked past lighting a cigarette. Staff at the Maraenui Challenge Service Station on Bledisloe Rd said they were not asked to move out and continued operating throughout the emergency.

They were worried about the reports of the gas leak being so close to its location but thought the service station must have been out of the immediate danger zone of the emergency.

Maraenui dairy owner James Wu said he closed up shop for about an hour and a half yesterday afternoon, spending the time off at a nearby friend's house until given the all-clear.

Mr Rowden said people were initially keen to know why they had to move and then the next question was "for how long?".

"But a lot of them had said they had smelt the gas in the air earlier and just co-operated with us with no problems.

"People were brilliant in the way they responded to the emergency."

It was about 45 minutes before police were able to let people back into their homes and shops.

"There were a number of homes that had windows open during the emergency and so there was a concern that a lot of the gas cloud had gone into those homes," Mr Rowden said.

"They all had to be checked thoroughly by the fire service and made safe before people could go back into their homes and their businesses."

Staff from a gas company isolated the leak, and the emergency ended about 1.25pm, although some monitoring of gas levels continued.

The St John Ambulance Service was on standby at the scene but no one was treated for any ill-effects.