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A sour gas leak from a Duke Energy 45-centimetre pipeline on Wednesday afternoon caused traffic delays and evacuations in the Baldonnel area.

?Residents were co-operative,? said Taylor fire chief Dan Leighton. ?Some were panicky, but we assured them, it (evacuations) was precautionary.?

According to RCMP Cpl. Jim Pletz a call came in at 3:29 p.m. advising police about the leak. The new emergency operations centre in the Fort St. John?s public works building immediately took action to co-ordinate response to the incident.

A Duke Energy press release said the pipeline was immediately shut down.

Pletz said RCMP started the evacuation and were joined by Taylor Fire and Rescue, who helped with the evacuation and closing roads, including the Alaska Highway in both directions. Pletz said a three-kilometre radius was evacuated around the leak?s location near Edgemont Trailer Court.

?There were no injuries,? said John Turner, manager of business relations with Duke. ?Two people were sent to hospital for precautionary measures, but were discharged.?

Turner said the workers were sprayed with condensate, but were otherwise fine. He said the cause of the leak is presently unknown, however an investigation is being carried out.

Police were quick to seal off the area and evacuate Baldonnel Elementary School. Drivers were forced to take alternate routes to get to Taylor.

Fort St. John Mayor Steve Thorlakson stood by at the emergency operations centre, and said only five children had to be relocated from the school, since classes had already been let out. However, the Salvation Army was ready to receive any displaced persons.

?Everything was blocked,? said Pletz. ?The trains were stopped, and the airport was notified.?

Pletz said the airport wasn?t evacuated because of its location in relation to the leak and the wind direction at the time.

?If the wind was blowing from the southeast towards the airport we definitely would have had to evacuate,? he said.

Jim Eglinski, the emergency operations centre co-ordinator, said the incident was the centre?s first since it opened this month.

He said they were fully operational by 4:12 p.m. when all members were present, and it took just over 16 minutes to complete evacuations.

?We were able to function well,? Eglinski said. ?It gave us the opportunity to practice what we?ve been learning.?

Turner said by 5 p.m. evacuees were back home and reunited with their families. Roads were also reopened at that time, according to Duke.

?The emergency response centre responded quickly and efficiently,? said Thorlakson.