Nearly 100 Markham residents have been allowed to return home after a natural gas leak led to an early morning evacuation.
At around 6 a.m. Saturday, Markham firefighters responded to a call about a fire on Claxton Road, near the Markham Go Station south of 16th Avenue.
When crews arrived on the scene they heard a series of small explosions and could see a fire around a home’s pool heater, said Chief Bill Snowball.
After some inspection, firefighters determined that an underground gas leak coming from the pool heater was the cause of the fire.
Crews put out the fire and evacuated neighbouring homes.
“We’ve isolated the source and Gas (monitors) is currently in there right now with their meters, checking to make sure there are no further leaks,” said Snowball.
Snowball said the fire department’s main concern is to make sure there is no accumulation of gas in any of the evacuated homes. He said officials will be checking the homes to make sure there has been no gas build-up.
