Car leaves road, hits building in downtown Kamloops

Photo: Tara Morin

This was the scene following a single-vehicle crash at First Avenue and St. Paul Street on Tuesday evening.

UPDATE 12:02 p.m.

Kamloops Fire Rescue crews were waiting at the ready after arriving at the scene of a car that left the road in downtown Kamloops on Tuesday night and severed two gas lines.

Colin Tomm, KFR assistant fire chief, told Castanet firefighters arrived on the scene of the incident around 8:30 p.m. after receiving a report of a vehicle in a building.

Tomm said Kamloops RCMP were already on scene and the driver was outside of the vehicle as well.

“Our crews immediately established a safety zone because they recognized that there was a vehicle that had gone into and severed a two-inch riser for the gas into the building,” Tomm said.

"Crews basically established the safety zone, had some of our crew members go and inform all area residents to shelter in place and kind of just designated the safe area to be having no traffic through."

Twenty minutes later, Fortis BC and BC Hydro arrived on the scene.

“They decided to go down to their eight inch main,” he said. “They dug down and got to that and had the situation kind of remedied by around 2:30 a.m.”

Tomm said conditions for venting were optimal and thankfully no further incident came form the gas leak.

“[KFR crews] had actually secured a water source and were ready in case,” he said.

“Of course the potential for action and that was high.”

He said Fortis BC had difficulty conducting their initial assessment due to the old infrastructure.

He said KFR crews left the scene at about 3 a.m.

ORIGINAL 4 a.m.

A car left the road in downtown Kamloops on Tuesday night and collided with a building, forcing the closure of First Avenue.

Tara Morin, who lives near the corner of First Avenue and St. Paul Street, said she was heading inside from her porch at about 8:30 p.m. when she heard a crunch that sounded “like stepping on a tin can.”

“Then this really loud, hissing sound happened right away and that concerned me because it was loud,” Morin told Castanet Kamloops.

“All I could see was the car in the ditch, couldn't see if anybody was leaving the vehicle or anything like that but I immediately called 911.”

The car appeared to have gone down an embankment and struck the Old Courthouse annex building.

Morin said she saw a police officer arrive at the scene and begin to usher people away. Emergency crews later shut down First Avenue.

Around 9:30 p.m. firefighters were advising pedestrians to avoid the area due to a gas leak.

Morin said the road was still closed while crews remained in the area at 11 p.m.

This story will be updated if more information becomes available.

Photo: Josh Dawson

Kamloops firefighters on the scene of the incident Tuesday night.