Roeselare (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – An excavator operating in Kermisstraat Roeselare unexpectedly struck a medium-pressure pipe at 12:45 on Tuesday. The students at Vrije Middelbare School had to stay on their lunch break after their classroom became inaccessible following the excavation incident.
The heavy equipment of an excavator struck a medium-pressure gas pipe at Kermisstraat in Roeselare at around 12:45 PM on Tuesday. The gas leak produced by the incident kept hundreds of students from their lunch break to stay outside as they attended the Vrije Middelbare School and the Centre for Adult Education (CVO). Emergency response teams stopped the leakage shortly after it started then resumed the area access without anybody getting hurt.
Local residents experienced the gas leakage in a central Roeselare area that was situated next to the Vrije Middelbare School and CVO Creo. All students from Vrije Middelbare School and Centre for Adult Education were prevented from entering their classrooms by safety measures after their lunch period.
Have similar gas leak incidents occurred in Roeselare before?
Roeselare has faced various utility damage incidents throughout construction projects in recent times. Construction crews caused a gas pipe rupture on Ardooisestraat in 2019, leading to the evacuation of local businesses that lasted for a short period.
In 2021, the water main of the city centre failed during roadwork, which resulted in several hours of traffic disruptions and disturbance for local businesses. The occurrences prove that ongoing issues exist in the management of underground infrastructure and construction safety requirements.
The Roeselare Fire Department, together with Fluvius Gas Distribution Operator, maintains swift response protocols for dealing with gas leaks based on their historical experience. Emergency services in Roeselare conducted a large-scale exercise about a major gas pipeline rupture near the city centre in 2022 to enhance their partnership responses. Fluvius strengthened excavation work supervision after the 2020 West Flanders gas line incident that necessitated a large-scale evacuation.
