In the morning of Sept. 13, a Fort St. James Public Works employee was digging up a broken water line when he struck a PNG Gas line and broke it.
The feeder line was shut off and a PNG Gas employee from Vanderhoof was called in to assess the damage.
The break was in an alley off the corner of Morice and Ogden Streets, behind Stuart Lake Automotive and could have fed as many as 40 or 50 buildings off of it, according to the PNG employee.
He said the line would be repaired the same day and then the company would be going around to all of the buildings serviced by the line to relight pilot lights once the gas was turned back on.
The public works employees on site were going to continue to dig up the water line and repair it while the gas was shut off.
The gas lines in the alley were supposedly marked, however the backhoe operator said where he was digging he saw no indication of a gas line.