Call Before You Dig

I've seen a lot of ads lately reminding us to call before we dig. I had put off digging up a small flower garden in the front yard for a few years because I felt I had to call first, and I am notorious for avoiding picking up a phone. The thing is, the garden had been there for years when the gas company came along and shot their line right under it.  No digging required on their part, but it certainly put a complete halt to any digging I might do. My son, who used to work for Promark, tried to tell me that I wasn't going to dig deep enough to worry about, just moving flowers, but I figured if anyone was ever going to dig through a gas line, it would be me, so I just left everything to grow until it got completely out of hand.

Last fall I knew the day had come that I was going to have to bite the bullet and move that flower bed. I used a trowel and removed what I could and then we filled the whole area with rocks. This spring I discovered that I did not actually get all the roots and various things came up anyway. But at least I didn't dig through any gas lines.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for one of my neighbours recently. I heard sirens and went outside to see what was going on just in time to see a fire truck come down my street. It parked in front of a house a couple of doors down and another one came and parked just beyond our lot line, and blocked off the road. Of course several of the neighbours wandered down the street to see what was going on. One said, "Well, there doesn't seem to be any smoke or fire,"just before he spotted a small digger and decided the gasline must have been breached. At that point, he turned around and headed for home without another word. The house owner came over and I asked if they broke the gas line, and she admitted that was what happened.  A fireman came and told us all to disperse.  He told us to get away from the area as there was gas and it was dangerous. Lovely.

I didn't have the nerve to dig the depth of a shovel without calling but if I was going to use a mechanical digger, I certainly would have made the call first.

The fire department has to wait for Enbridge to shut off the gas. Enbridge seemed to take a long time to arrive and it was all starting to make me a little nervous.  But eventually the line was secured and all the fire trucks and Enbridge vehicles went away.

This week there was a major explosion in London, Ontario when a car ran into a house and ruptured the gas line. The fire department was there within two minutes but about 12 minutes later the whole neighbourhood blew up. Seven people were injured. One hundred homes were evacuated and ten of those will be demolished. That has nothing to do with digging, but it sure lets me know how lucky we all were here.

Now I'm really glad I have a few flowers that I just didn't dig deep enough to eliminate. I might have eliminated myself in the process.  It's important to call before you dig!