Enbridge Gas crews were quick to respond after the natural gas outage occurred Friday morning.

The natural gas outage in Coochanur, a small northern Ontario town of less than 1,000 people, was reported at 8 a.m. Friday. The outage left residents without heat until the evening of the same day in -26 degrees Celsius (including wind chill).

Alexandra Rosender, a Coochanur resident who was on her way home, called CBC to express her concerns about her pets in the freezing temperatures. She decided to return home after learning about the outage, and along the way, she had concerns for locals who may not have noticed the outage.

Subsequent posts on Facebook by the City of Coochanur showed Enbridge crews checking homes and turning off the natural gas. After the repairs, Enbridge representatives had to go to each home to turn the gas back on.

Enbridge said repairs were being made quickly and were expected to be completed by the evening. In the meantime, residents were advised to allow company representatives to enter their homes and restore gas service. If residents were unable to be home, they were asked to call the company’s hotline to arrange a later time.

Rosender cited a similar incident in January last year, when the outage lasted nearly 24 hours. He wondered why measures were not taken to expedite repairs this time.

He also cited the difficulties in accessing emergency services in remote northern Canada, saying, “Many people in Canada can be sensitive to service outages in northern communities.”

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