Road, shops close as emergency staff stem gas leak

A gas leak led to a busy Whangarei street being cordoned off for more than an hour and shop workers kept indoors yesterday.
Strong-smelling natural gas leaked out over Riverside Dr about 11.30am when a spring failed on a valve in a district regulator station. The station takes gas in at high pressure and distributes it at a lower pressure to households.
Police and the Fire Service cordoned off Riverside Dr from traffic and kept workers at shops and a nearby service station indoors until the leak was stemmed.
Whangarei Senior Fire Station Officer Wipari Henwood said firefighters showered the regulator station with a light spray of water to allow air to get into the station and disperse the gas.
People in nearby homes were advised to close their windows to avoid inhaling the gas and feeling nauseous. He said firefighters left the scene about 12.30pm. Checks at nearby shops and homes afterward found no gas present.
Natural Gas Corp external relations manager Keith FitzPatrick said natural gas was lighter than air and would quickly dissipate once released into the atmosphere.
He said a spring broke in a valve in the regulator station and triggered a relief valve that released the gas into the air.
An NGC field technician had been sent to fix the leak.
He said the system worked as it should have done for such a fault and there was no danger to the public during the leak. Baker's assistant Jackie Chen and his colleagues were kept inside their Riverside Dr shop for more than an hour as firefighters and a gas worker shut off the leak.
Workers from the nearby Stumpy's Takeaways and BP Service station were also kept indoors while the drama was dealt with. Mr Chen said it had been exciting watching the situation unfold from inside the shop, but at the same time "pretty scary".
"It meant that some of the (shop's staff) had to go without a cigarette for more than an hour and that was hard for them," he said.
"But I took it as a chance to relax. We had to turn everything (equipment) off so I couldn't do any work," Mr Chen said.
At Stumpy's Takeaways duty manager Sharon McCready said while staff were initially concerned about the gas leak, they were quickly re-assured of their safety by firefighters.
Ms McCready was alerted to the excitement outside when she noticed cars backing up along Riverside Dr and thought "something's going on here".
She had gone outside to see a plume of gas escaping from the district regulator station.
"Then I could smell (gas) very strongly. I didn't really think anything about it at first and came back inside," she said.
When the Fire Service had arrived to try to control the leak Ms McCready and her fellow workers were advised to stay indoors and turn off all equipment.
The situation had probably cost both businesses in terms of lost customers, but Mr Chen and Ms McCready were just pleased there had been no harm to themselves, their colleagues or the public. T he gas leak follows the evacuation of houses and a school after a liquefied petroleum gas leak at a Tikipunga service station last month. As a precaution during the May 30 leak 500 pupils at nearby Tikipunga High School were moved to a hall at the northern end of the school and Corks Rd residents living within 100m of the service station were also evacuated. R esidents living further away were advised to shut their windows and stay indoors and traffic was diverted away from the area.