Normally it’s pretty dull in Etobicoke, the former western suburb of Toronto where I work. Apparently someone on a backhoe doing storm sewer work near Bloor and Kipling cut through the gas main (Uh-Oh!) yesterday afternoon. Before the workers could summon help, the natural gas leaked into the basement of a nearby strip plaza and apartments and ignited. BOOM! The plaza was reduced to rubble and, unfortunately, six people were killed. I feel very sad about the owner of the family dry cleaner business in that plaza. He had just stepped out to get a coffee when the explosion happened. His wife and daughter were crushed inside. There were still lots of news vehicles and bystanders when I walked up today at lunchtime. I think nearby residents would rather Etobicoke go back to being dull.

Articles: insidetoronto, The Globe and Mail, Canada.com and a video

I had my own gas line cutting incident several years ago when I was putting in a fence post. The hole was nowhere near the line marked on the grass by the “Call before you dig”person. The gas lines are plastic so when I felt a bit of resistance I figured it was rock or a tree root: so I jumped on my spade. Uh-oh! I quickly shoved the heavy clay back in the hole and called the gas company. That sure was an expensive fence post — probably $300 in repair labour and gas charges. Only later did I read the fine print on the buried gas line notice that the error for the line on the grass was ±1 meter. Perhaps the backhoe operator or his foreman thought the gas line was exactly where it had been marked and that they were digging nowhere near it, too.